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The 2014 7DRL Challenge Evaluation Process Click a table header to sort. |
| Name | Author | Runs on | Play | Completeness | Aesthetics | Fun | Innovation | Scope | Roguelikeness | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VARIABLO | Rat King |   
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| TraumaRL | flend (and ShroomArts) |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.83 |
| DataQueen | Darren Grey | 
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.75 |
| The Hunt | winner | 
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.67 |
| Succession | Adam Perry |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.33 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.33 | 3.00 | 2.61 |
| Android <3 Kitty | Andrew Wright |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.58 |
| Dungeon Dual 2014 | Todd Page |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.58 |
| Goldfish | Ondras |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.58 |
| Ragtag | Magma Fortress |
| Play | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.58 |
| Rogue Station | Pål Trefall and Kenneth Gangstø | 
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.58 |
| Dice Mines | Trystan Spangler |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 |
| Down Below | Konstantin Stupnik aka Xecutor |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 |
| Find Yer Treasure! | Gary Boyd |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 |
| Golden Krone Hotel | Jere |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.50 |
| Lava Walker | StormAlligator Games & Pixelatedcrown |
| Play | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 |
| Wild West Roguelike | Lovepreet |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 |
| Assault Fish | Eben Howard | 
| Play | 2.00 | 2.33 | 2.67 | 2.33 | 2.67 | 3.00 | 2.50 |
| Impera | Elliot Bonneville |
| Play | 2.67 | 3.00 | 2.33 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.67 | 2.44 |
| Here Be Dragons | Watabou |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.42 |
| Sucker | graspee |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.42 |
| Trinkets | Geek of Geek And Dad |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 1.50 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.42 |
| Knight | Derrick Creamer |
| Play | 2.67 | 2.33 | 2.33 | 2.33 | 2.00 | 2.67 | 2.39 |
| Beware of Strange Warp Points | Ed Kolis |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.33 |
| Hellspace | Numeron |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.33 |
| Kunoichi | Kevin Harris |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.33 |
| Power Grounds | Diego Cathalifaud |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.33 |
| The Littlest Princess | Jo |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.33 |
| Towers of Trial | RedMike & Torvik |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.33 |
| favrl | Norgg |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.33 |
| horddays | koiwai |
| Play | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.33 |
| Saligia | 5k17 |
| Play | 2.67 | 2.00 | 1.67 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.67 | 2.33 |
| Tales of the Adventuring Company | @slothwerks |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.67 | 2.33 | 2.67 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.28 |
| The Mana Well | rot13 |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.25 |
| The Smith's Hand | Jeff Lait |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.25 |
| Blackguard | Joshua Hansen |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.17 |
| Cyber Phreak | Camden Segal |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.17 |
| Fida'i | Pat Wilson |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.17 |
| Golem Quest | Tapio |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.17 |
| LanternRun | Binary Gambit | 
| Play | 2.33 | 2.67 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.33 | 1.67 | 2.17 |
| Mountain of the Gods | Skyler Colladay |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.17 |
| Peasant Simulator | Will Coster |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 3.00 | 2.17 |
| Tox | Daan van Yperen & Flaterectomy |
| Play | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 2.17 |
| Voronoiance | Daniel Slaney |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.17 |
| cyberdekay | Mark Wonnacott |
| Play | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.17 |
| rgb | Bovard Tiberi and Ambrose McJunkin |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.17 |
| Loot Rogue | Daniel Trewin |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.33 | 1.67 | 2.00 | 2.67 | 2.11 |
| Anti-deratization | Tom Kunikowski |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.08 |
| Creek Hero | MagmaCrab |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 2.08 |
| the deadly four | kyle |
| Play | 2.33 | 2.67 | 2.00 | 1.33 | 1.67 | 2.33 | 2.06 |
| Coffin Crooks | Found Time Games |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.33 | 1.67 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 |
| Crime Central | Worthless Bums |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.33 | 1.67 | 1.67 | 2.00 | 2.33 | 2.00 |
| FarmingRL | horaguchi |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 |
| FlappyRL | Matt Cooper |
| Play | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 |
| Good Game | rubybliels |
| Play | 2.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 |
| HvZ | Micah Workman |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.67 | 1.67 | 2.00 | 1.67 | 3.00 | 2.00 |
| KRAXLN | Arnold from Tinytouchtales, Thomas Wellmann and Leon Purviance |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 2.00 |
| Mysterious Space | Ben Hendel-Doying |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 |
| Northbound | skeeto & netguy204 |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 2.00 |
| Obumbrata et Velata | Martin Read |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 |
| R.U.S.T. | virtualtoy |
| Play | 2.00 | 3.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 |
| The Tablet of Ananias | Slash | 
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 |
| Unearthly Ichor | Sanojian |
| Play | 2.50 | 3.00 | 1.50 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 |
| ZERO ZERO PROJECTOR | jonathan brodsky |
| Play | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 |
| plato rogue | kuniqs |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 |
| IX | Dom Crayford |
| Play | 2.67 | 3.00 | 1.67 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.67 | 2.00 |
| Terminal Run | Lizzip / MagicSheepGames |
| Play | 2.33 | 2.33 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.33 | 2.67 | 1.94 |
| Cyber Ships | Louis Denizet |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.92 |
| Like A Rogue 2 | Launch When Ready |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 1.50 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.92 |
| Lyon's Den | Lyon |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.50 | 3.00 | 1.92 |
| OL Rogue | Legend of Angband |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 1.92 |
| Powerslave | jfroco |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 1.50 | 1.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.92 |
| Princess Rescue 2014 7drl | cky711 |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 1.92 |
| Sand Dune Monster | Henron |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.92 |
| atomic goblin epidemic | fournm |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 2.50 | 1.92 |
| Atarowg | theloon |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.83 |
| ElvinRL | Patrick Meade |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.83 |
| Ironwood | Peter Harkins |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.83 |
| Monstrous Times | Rene Hangstrup Møller |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 1.83 |
| Shit Crimson | ArchBang |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 1.83 |
| The Curse of Midas | Gerry Quinn |
| Play | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 1.83 |
| The Girl Who Played With The Dragons Nest | Jaldhar Vyas |
| Play | 3.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 3.00 | 1.83 |
| Zombie Tactics | John Watson |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 1.83 |
| firstrl | kiskami |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 1.83 |
| Card Bard | @nik_sg |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.33 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.67 | 1.00 | 1.83 |
| ColourBlind | Luke O'Connor |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 1.67 | 1.67 | 1.33 | 1.00 | 1.78 |
| Something Something Office Rampage | Df458 |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.33 | 1.00 | 1.33 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 1.78 |
| Colorshift | Perry Johnson |
| Play | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 2.50 | 1.75 |
| Fragility | Vedor |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 3.00 | 1.75 |
| Rogue Pachinko | DDD wares |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.75 |
| fivepm | Xik |
| Play | 2.00 | 3.00 | 1.50 | 1.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.75 |
| h@ckeRL | sntran |
| Play | 1.50 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 1.00 | 1.50 | 3.00 | 1.75 |
| Rushan grows stronger | stof and miguel |
| Play | 1.67 | 1.67 | 1.67 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 2.33 | 1.72 |
| Commission Impossible | Jacob White |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.67 |
| Luck of the Draw | Chocolate Factory |
| Play | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.67 |
| Morlock Hunter | Risto Saarelma |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.67 |
| Quake RL | Marlus Cadanus da Costa & Murilo Cadanus da Costa & Danny Grein |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.50 | 2.50 | 1.67 |
| Salvage | Stewsters |
| Play | 1.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 3.00 | 1.67 |
| The Way of The Warrior (working name: Stubborn Warriors) | Serge Zaitsev (trikita) |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.00 | 1.50 | 1.67 |
| Third Planet | blockerz |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.67 |
| Tower of Friendship | Ivy Edwards |
| Play | 1.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.67 |
| Brace for Impact | Mike Trupkin |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.67 | 1.33 | 1.67 | 1.67 | 1.67 | 1.67 |
| DartRL | Mathias Myrland |
| Play | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 1.58 |
| 7DArrrL | Paul Jeffries |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.67 | 1.33 | 1.33 | 1.56 |
| KKDKDLRL | 2 Brothers + an artist |
| Play | 2.67 | 1.67 | 1.33 | 1.33 | 1.33 | 1.00 | 1.56 |
| Colosseum of Rogues (COMPLETE!) | Deepshock |
| Play | 1.67 | 1.33 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.67 | 1.33 | 1.50 |
| MOV [title] \"Cyber\" JMP Quest | Badscribbler |
| Play | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.50 |
| Shaken, not stirred | Karri Kaksonen |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.50 |
| SoulsRL | pangaea |
| Play | 1.00 | 1.33 | 1.33 | 1.33 | 1.67 | 2.33 | 1.50 |
| Space Junk Settler | Patrick Reece |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.50 |
| Legend of Tower | Adam J. Piskel & Michael Vaganov |
| Play | 1.33 | 2.33 | 1.33 | 1.00 | 1.33 | 1.67 | 1.50 |
| Shrapnels | gnsh |
| Play | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.50 | 1.42 |
| Procedural Death Splatter | steev |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.33 |
| The Shroom Z | Gadget Games |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.33 |
| The Worst Archaeologist in the World | David Proctor |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.33 |
| Transplant | ktch |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.33 |
| Yokai | Arnaud DE BOCK | 
| Play | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.33 |
| Airship Dragoon Rogue | Steve_Yorkshire |
| Play | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.50 | 1.00 | 1.25 |
| Escape from the Memory Canyons | Ian Wagner |
| Play | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.17 |
| Prescience | Benn Powell |
| Play | 1.50 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.50 | 1.00 | 1.17 |
| Runic Ruins | BtpPrograms |
| Play | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.17 |
| The Boss Might Be a Dragon | Boolean isDragon Studios |
| Play | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.17 |
| APEX - Alien Pest Exterminator | SIJO Studios |
| Play | 1.00 | 1.67 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.11 |
| Blitz it up! | Peaxel Games |
| Play | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Goblin Hunt | A. Dude |
| Play | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Rift-RL | Terkala |
| Play | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
Reviews
VARIABLO
Completeness
3 - The Linux version worked with no fuss. The x86 binary just started.\ The game is polished and appears to be complete. While you are playing you get hints and instructions in white overlaid on the game field. You would not have these kind of elements on an unfinished game. The game is quite short. In a few minutes of playing the exit appears and you can escape the maze.
Aesthetics
3 - The music is nice. It is easy to listen to and creates a relaxed mood for playing.\ The colours and graphics are very polished and fit well to the atmosphere of the game. The characters are made up of a few pixels only. But they are very nicely animated. To tell you the truth I would so like to have this game running on my tablet or mobile phone. It is exactly the kind of game you want to play on the bus. Hmm.... It is only made for Mac, Windows and Linux. No Android - rats. Perhaps if I ask the author nicely?
Fun
3 - This game is very, very nice to play. The game is friendly. It instructs the user how to play the game.\ But after playing for a while. The content is very shallow. This may be because I cannot find the puzzle-element of the game at all.
Innovation
3 - The idea of two moving platforms is cool. I really like it. Once you are above ground and get the second platform you seem to be able to move these platforms anywhere in the universe. What is the gaming area?
Scope
3 - This game is definitely better that what I expected could be done in just 7 days. The guys have done it in 2.5 days according to the home page. This seems to be more like a show-off of the playing mechanism. On top of this technology you could create content. Right now the goal was to exit the mad wizard VARIABLO's maze. That objective is simple to achieve.
Roguelikeness
3 - In my opinion this is roguelike. It is turn based in the sense that if you do nothing no enemies will spawn. After you have made your platforms move things happen in real time.
I was really happy to play VARIABLO. It is a nice proof of concept that could be used in games to come in the future. There is also a risk that I missed the point completely. The home page tells about combining Master Mind with a dungeon crawler. I was trying to look for hints of matching colours or pegs to solve a puzzle. This is also announced as a puzzle game. Where is the puzzle. Am I too stupid to see it?
TraumaRL
Completeness
3 - Everything feels solid.
Aesthetics
2 - The controls are pretty good but the color scheme and glyphs can be hard to process visually. There's a lot of things going on and since the game is a bit small on a standard 1920x1080 screen there's times when it's hard to read the text. Sound fx for the weapons would go a really long way towards helping set the theme.
Fun
3 - Great story, but really easy gameplay right up until it's very very hard. Story driven makes it a bit less replayable as well.
Innovation
3 - Good combination of ranged combat mechanics, story, multilevel maps, and sci-fi setting.
Scope
3 - Quite a bit more done here than I'd normally expect in a 7dRL.
Roguelikeness
3 - Roguelike as can be.
TraumaRL is a great sci-fi themed roguelike. An interesting story and nice visuals make this a must-play game.
DataQueen
Completeness
2 - A little buggy. Game requires a restart at least once before it will run at all (freezes the first time after a couple minutes loading), then keept spitting out Lua errors about resolution. A somewhat annoying intro to the game, but after that it runs mostly without issue. New attacks that replace old ones won't show up in your inventory until you move at least one hex.
3 - Very polished; I haven't run into any errors or bugs (except the insect kind, ho ho).
Aesthetics
2 - The text UI looks quite nice, except for a couple graphical glitches. The board/map itself, however, seems like it should be easy to refine. As is the hexes feel a bit crude. Color choices overall appear random and not very pleasing. The font could also be a little more stylized to give the game some character. I think the aesthetics of the game are the biggest area in need of improvement, but an enhanced version on top of the game's already solid mechanics would make it pretty awesome indeed. QWE/ASD for hex movement is wonderful.
3 - Clear and pleasant visuals, well designed tooltips and general UI, the QWEASD keyboard controls work well for hex movement.
Fun
3 - Takes a little while to get used to the mechanics, but once you do the game really shines with its well-devised gameplay. Excellent job. It seems like the latter half of the game is more about getting a higher score than avoiding a loss though, because you're nigh invincible before long.
3 - As long as you read the instructions to understand the game, it’s a lot of fun. Accessible yet challenging and requires thought and tactics. Well balanced too, at least as far as I've managed to get to date.
Innovation
3 - Completely new ideas throughout the mechanics, which is after all the most important part of a roguelike! Hex boards are also less often done, though quite suitable for tactical games.
3 - I can’t say whether it’s super original (release notes seem to suggest it's inspired by something else) but it’s new to me and certainly different to other roguelikes I’ve played. Uses roguelike principles in an unfamiliar way that still works.
Scope
3 - I was going to give this a 2, because more work on the presentation would've gone a long way towards taking this beyond the 7DRL level, but I pumped it back up to a 3 because 1) the aesthetics score already took a hit from that and 2) all the enemies and bosses come with well-written descriptions, which is a nice touch--definitely required some extra thought and does a good job of giving the game more meaning!
3 - I was on the fence about whether to award a 2 based on how much polish came from the slickness of the T-Engine but I think a 3 is merited for not only introducing an innovative mechanic but also executing it extremely competently and achieving good game balance, all in 7 days.
Roguelikeness
3 - Turn-based, procedural, permadeath, blah blah blah... It's a roguelike.
2 - Definitely draws on roguelikes as a base starting point, and some aspects are more roguelikey than they seem (tactical boss battles, locating the exit). Still, it does discard enough roguelike staples to fall outside a purely roguelike classification. This is not a criticism.
A unique puzzle-roguelike in which you play an AI tasked with defeating a wide range of other AIs. Most have unique abilities, and you have many interesting abilities yourself, gaining some and losing others as you level. Most enemies are one-hit-to-kill, so it's their abilities and positioning that matter--the only way you can die/lose is to be surrounded. It's harder than it sounds since you have to take into account all their special abilities, and your own abilities only work in certain directions (which rotate with every move). The game plays out on a hex grid, which is perfect for this kind of game; four-way movement would have been too boring, and eight-way would be too easy. While not exactly intuitive at first, as long as you put in the time to read the help and tool tips, and play through a level, it'll all fall into place. Then the fun really begins. Great game. (Seriously, don't try playing without reading first; it won't make much sense.)
First off: make sure you read the instructions! The first time I played I didn’t bother reading and consequently thought I was just bashing stuff and sometimes the floor was changing colour for no reason. Read! Like a lot of the best designed games, DataQueen is simple but deep. Floor tiles turn green when you step on them, and you have to link the pink tiles together by connecting them all with green ones. There are enemies with various special properties trying to stop you, but they can only move when you step on a neutral tile (i.e. not green or pink). They don’t attack you but they do neutralise your green tiles and can kill you if they completely surround you. That’s the gist of it, and it leads to a surprisingly tactical game experience. Using your ‘free’ movement across the green tiles, choosing where to take a step onto neutral tiles, and trying to bait the enemy swarms into suitable positions takes a lot of thought at times. \ \ To add to this, your attacks are tied to the ability wheel in the corner of the screen. You can only use a particular ability in the direction indicated on the wheel. When a turn passes, the wheel rotates and the directions in which you can use your abilities change. The whole game becomes about positioning and careful use of turns. It’s challenging and probably a bit on the tough side, but I find that never it gets frustrating or feels unfair. I’m usually bad at tactical games but DataQueen keeps drawing me back in by remaining accessible and giving the impression that you can always win if you just think carefully enough. \ \ Also well presented and polished, nice to look at, has minimal but appropriate sound effects, and includes unlockable/upgradeable abilities between levels. Definitely one of my top 7DRL picks this year.
The Hunt
Completeness
3 - Feels very complete. Everything has a description, nice.
3 - Looks complete. No bugs. It seems that killed snakes block the stairs.
Aesthetics
3 - Beautiful Dwarf Fortress-type ANSI graphics. Love the terrain and different plant-life encountered on different levels. Controls are what they should be.
2 - Beautiful ASCII. But the game did not fit in the screen (768px in height), and I had to zoom out a lot. If I did not zoom out, the page tried to scroll when I walk up and down.
Fun
3 - It's fun! Definitely check this one out.
3 - nteresting to play, but hard.
Innovation
2 - Some nice fun new mechanics like the fining/trophy system and the overall uniqueness of the monster AI is really cool. Nice twists on the usual roguelike formula.
2 - Although does not look extremely innovative gameplay-wise, the monsters are unique, and the world is pretty awesome.
Scope
2 - About what I'd expect could be accomplished from a dedicated 7drl-er. Browser version is great.
3 - Very well designed world.
Roguelikeness
3 - Definitely a roguelike.
3 - RL
THE HUNT is a great little roguelike with some unique mechanics and a great DwarfFortress-inspired ASCII display. It looks like a standard bump to attack game at first but if you use only this strategy you will die quickly, and often. Use traps and make careful use of your gun to dispatch enemies. Trapping them is best as you are guaranteed to get XP and something cool from it. Murdering enemies also sometimes causes you to receive fines, so grab any gold you come across, because usually you do not have a choice. The AI is interesting and the multi-tile SNAKE enemies were really cool. I became even more impressed when I looked at the simply elegant code underneath. Nice! Pro-tip I would go in to the game.html file and edit the player character before you start. Give yourself a bit more HP and bump up the sight radius. Playing on the default sight radius was just waaaay too tough for me, visually, since there is a lot going on with the terrain and there is no \"memory\" of other areas so it's not always obvious what you have previously explored. Overall, great game, plays quick and has some cool mechanics.
The game is very interesting and very well designed. To win the game, the final goal has to be achieved in 7 days, so you have to optimize your actions.\ \ All monsters have unique behavior, so you have to think strategically (Do I want to kill those bicorns or not?) and tactically (e.g., handling the spear). Multi-tile monsters are pretty awesome too.\ \ Main attributes: time, experience, HP, ammunition, money - all are important gameplay wise. And overall, the game is well balanced. Although it is not easy to figure out what tactic would be the best in each particular situation. Also, sometimes you are spawned next to strong mobs, and you simply have no chance. I wish the game was a bit more relaxed, and easy on the player.\ \ Aesthetically, it looks beautiful. I took off one point only because I had to zoom out the game a lot to fit it in the screen. Otherwise, it's awesome. Controls are natural. Level generation is well done. Biome-like dungouns look like forests, marshes, savannas, etc. \
Succession
Completeness
3 - The game is complete and rather polished.
3 - Seems fairly polished. No bugs encountered while playing.
3 - Polished.
Aesthetics
2 - The game art looks like a parody on DCSS. Not very good one, but manageable. It is even possible to play with mouse. From controls point of view it is rather tedious to explore such big maps without some kind of assistance from the game. The game only allows traveling with mouse inside of field of view, and there is no minimap.
2 - Simple, clean pixel art, which is servicable even if not the most beautiful I've ever seen. Option of mouse or keyboard control makes controlling the game easy, though perhaps not for those without numpads.
3 - I am missing a pure keyboard interface, a map of the level, and a way to tell explored from unexplored parts of the map when echolocating. But these are not a reason not to give 3.
Fun
2 - It is definitely worth trying. Can't say there is much replayability value, but finishing it once is somewhat satisfying.
1 - The succession mechanic is fun and interesting... but is completely undermined by the map generation. The dungeon levels are too large, it takes too long to find the exit and the dominance of diagonal corridors make it a real pain to navigate and explore. I was tempted to give this a higher score because I think it could be easily very easily fixed, but as it stands those issues really drag down my enjoyment of the game.
3 - The special abilities of monsters are really nice.
Innovation
3 - I can't remember a game with similar mechanics.
3 - I've not seen anything quite like the succession mechanic before and the range of different monster abilities is quite interesting.\
3 - Playing as the monster who killed you. Nice special abilities and difficulty levels.
Scope
2 - There are several monsters with special abilities. There are several potions to drink and throw. I'd say it's very solid 2.
2 - Good range of monsters, potions etc. A high 2.\
3 - Lots of unique and balanced special abilities.
Roguelikeness
3 - It's a roguelike.
3 - Has all the key ingredients, although arguably not real permadeath.
3 - Definitely a roguelike.
This one is really interesting. After death you start new game as a monster who killed you. On easier difficulty levels you even inherit special properties of all previous incarnations. There are several types of potions to assist you.
A solid game with an interesting main mechanic, but the level generation ultimately renders it a bit of a trudge. Could be improved greatly simply by adjusting the parameters of the level generator to better complement the core gameplay. Since dying and restarting are the key components the game would be better served by being shorter overall with much faster ramping up of challenge. With just a few small tweaks the significant promise this game shows could easily come through.
A game with lots of monsters, each of them with a fun and unique special ability. If a monster kills you, you start again, but as a being of the type of the monster who killed you. Definitely recommended! Excels in all the 7DRL categories. I have won on the Easiest level, but I will return to try harder difficulty levels, too.\
Android <3 Kitty
Completeness
3 - Very complete--7 levels with 3 additional special levels.
2 - On my first playthrough I made it to the 6th level (I think) and through all 3 optional levels when the game crashed on me while fighting a \"V\". Some of the enemies have ranged attacks but are not animated or otherwise visually shown, so it can be confusing, especially when multiple ranged attackers are around at once. Otherwise the game is solid and complete.\
Aesthetics
2 - Basic ASCII with simple color schemes for each level, but it's all functional and appropriate.
3 - The tileset is clean, clear, and pleasant.\
Fun
3 - Timing the bombs to get one or more enemies as they pass by is quite satisfying, as is meeting new enemies on each level. Fighting enemies that require multiple bombs is even more interesting. The large number of enemy types, especially those with interesting abilities, is a lot of fun.
3 - I really enjoyed playing the game, looking forward to what sort of cool new item I'd get on the next level.
Innovation
2 - Indirect combat is implemented fairly well, but the alternative use for bombs (escape/alternate routes) isn't all that useful since you have to wait 5 turns for each bomb to explode, and back away each time, making tunneling a very slow process. Plus you can't see the rest of the level so tunneling isn't often very helpful anyway. It's most effective to simply blow up all the enemies.
3 - Manipulating the environment with bombs is fun and using them against enemies brings strategic depth.
Scope
2 - It's a 7DRL.
2 - There are at least a couple hours of entertainment to get from this game.
Roguelikeness
3 - Everything you'd expect from a roguelike.
3 - Definitely a roguelike.
This game replaces the \"typical combat\" system of a roguelike with one where your only way to defeat enemies is to drop bombs that explode when their timer runs out (4 turns). This adds a bit more puzzle aspect to the game, as does the fact that your bombs can blow through walls to tunnel into other areas for escape or to circumvent enemies. It's actually quite satisfying to time the explosions just right to hit multiple enemies, or hit tougher enemies with multiple explosions. By default the optional boss on each level you can earn a different way to set your bombs which may change your strategy. A very sound 7DRL worth trying out if you like ASCII roguelike puzzles.
Android <3 Kitty brings some innovation to the roguelike genre with its focus on the exclusive use of bombs to complete the game's objectives.\ \ The levels are well-balanced, with a steady increase in difficulty and introduction of new game mechanics throughout the entire descent. The game is fairly gentle for a roguelike and can probably be won in 1 or 2 attempts.\ \ I would have liked to have taken a look at the source code, but unfortunately it was not provided.\
Dungeon Dual 2014
Completeness
3 - Looks technically and feature complete and more or less bugfree. At some point two players become permanently out of sync, but able to finish the game.
3 - The manual worked, there were no bugs, and the win screen had a nice message. Although Game Hunter's side seemed to refuse inputs until he rejoined.
Aesthetics
2 - More or less standard ascii. Abilities can only be used with mouse, which might be not really comfortable at times, especially if you try to chat with other player.
2 - Standard choice of characters and colors. I like the little shouted messages. You have to select an item before you can drop, equip or\ remove it.
Fun
2 - It's moderately fun. The game itself is way too easy, so cooperation is not really needed.
3 - A little easy, I only once needed to use a stamina potion (most of the time you can just wait), but quite fun.\
Innovation
3 - Very interesting approach to mupltiplayer games. Stamina as a damage buffer is an interesting twist too.
3 - An asynchronous cooperative rogue like gets an automatic three.
Scope
2 - It's very strong 2. Nearly 3.
2 - Two different classes with 3 abilities each. A dozen monsters. Half a dozen potions, armors and items.
Roguelikeness
3 - Definitely a roguelike.
3 - 100% roguelike
Asynchronous turn based multiplayer game? Yes! Basically each player plays his own game, in identical dungeons. But! You can assist the other player, by stunning his enemies for example. Or irritate him by sending him your enemies. Other then coop, it's rather basic game.
It takes about a half hour to complete, you rush to the bottom on the dungeon (with or without a friend) to defeat the evil TIME MASTER, along the way you fight vicious orcs, smart kobolds, and more monsters. This is Todd Page's Second attempt at making this game, and it is a definite success. You and your friend play the same dungeon seed and can send messages, and attacks back and forth while you play. (I was never able to put a fireball onto Game Hunter's screen, but he was able to assist me a couple times)
Goldfish
Completeness
3 - Didn't see any bugs, very well polished. The fish-specific AI was a nice touch.
3 - Despite the lack of the oxygen-based special ability system which there wasn't enough time to implement, this is a well-polished game with no problems.
Aesthetics
3 - The inventory screen is great! Tiles and colors fit the theme very well. UI is very simple and clear.
3 - The color choices are wonderful and there's even an ASCII fish used as a visual inventory representation. Controls are simple.
Fun
3 - A great little game. Can be completed in a relatively short amount of time. Enjoyed the references to other popular roguelikes.
3 - The game looks great, and it's fun to discover what the fisherman desire while improving your fish.
Innovation
1 - Essentially a hack and slash with theme-appropriate quest gathering and items. The innovation isn't in the mechanics but in the theme and presentation of the theme.
2 - Applying the normal equipment/inventory system to a fish is interesting, and the other parts of the world are well-integrated, like the seaweed for health restoration and air bubbles for the [unimplemented] special ability system.
Scope
2 - Scope is very appropriate for seven days. Great job on getting the features in the game to look and feel good.
2 - If it included everything the creator intended, this would probably be a 3. As is it's more or less a normal 7DRL scope.
Roguelikeness
3 - Interesting choices in the items lead to meaningful decisions in the caves. Relatively short but a solid roguelike feel.
3 - Yep.
Have you ever want to play a goldfish that grants wishes to fishermen? Seek out happiness, a cure for AIDs, or even a billion dollar bill in exchange for your freedom. Goldfish has a lot of charm and polish packed into a small game with perhaps the best ASCII fish paperdoll inventory I've seen.
In this game you play a goldfish (surprised?) caught by a fisherman on a lake. You're released after promising to bring him something like... a Cadillac (or some other random thing he wants). To find it you swim through caves (separate maps) at the bottom of the lake, fighting other fish and underwater creatures and eating seaweed to replenish your health. There are multiple fishermen, and satisfying them all is actually the whole purpose of the game, so you have to purposefully jump on their hooks to keep the game going. One by one you fulfill their desires, revealing new caves that may contain what the others are seeking. Some caves are more dangerous than others--they're color coded and you can enter any of them at any time. You enhance your abilities by collecting fish parts (fins, jaws, etc.) from fallen foes and equipping them to your inventory, which itself is an ASCII fish. Colors are well-chosen and it's fun to explore the world, though it could use some more content.\
Ragtag
Completeness
2 - The game runs fine, but looks a little barebone. And it crashed twice while I was playing.
3 - Feels complete and polished. Plenty of helpful text and mouse-overs.
Aesthetics
3 - Nice use of Oryx tiles. Smooth movement. Easy controls. Everything is there! It would be nice to see attack area of ranged heroes on mouseover, but I'm nit-picking.
3 - Looks great. Uses the minimalistic oryx tiles. Not my personal favorite but they are used well and blend in very well with the aethetic of the game. Interface is superb.
Fun
2 - The game is definitely fun. But the fun is somewhat ruined by the way monsters are placed. You can easily find yourself surrounded by mages or archers right after you enter the room. From replayability point of view the game somewhat lacks variety.
2 - It's challenging and frustratingly difficult at times but also fun. Which is about what I want from a roguelike. The only thing I will say against it is that it does feel a bit slow paced at times. Could just be the web-based engine slowing things down? Definitely worth checking out.
Innovation
3 - That's really interesting mechanic. Special skill while monster is tagged out is really nice addition.
2 - Very cool tag-in party mechanic. Maybe more games should steal that!
Scope
2 - That's very solid 7drl entry.
3 - Very impressive for a seven day RL.
Roguelikeness
3 - Roguelike for sure.
3 - It's certainly a roguelike. Turn based, random, lots and LOTS of great grid-based tactical combat. Mmmmm. Meaty.
That's the kind of a game I really like. You have powerful abilities at your disposal. At first they look almost like cheating. But then you come across enemies, that are powerful enough to kill your team. In this game you control group of monsters. Only one monster can be controlled at a time, but 'passive' monsters can help with special passive ability. And you can, obviously, switch monsters. Monster can only heal when tagged out. Heroes of the dungeon are gaining xp for every move you make. Wandering around aimlessly is not an option.
From the creator of last year's amazing hoplite comes Ragtag. Emphasis on the Tag. You control a squad of 3 monsters tag-team style: only 1 can be active at a time. You move through the dungeon from room to room, where each room becomes a battle against a group of heroes. There is little direct combat but lots of tactical maneuvering, and pushing heroes into traps and against walls and into exploding barrels, etc. You need to play efficiently though, because with every turn the heroes gain more experience. And the last thing you want is for them to level up! This makes for a nice trade-off in gameplay. Otherwise you could spend hours setting up the exact right trap in each room.\ \ Monster abilities take some getting used to, but once you figure it out, it's fun.
Rogue Station
Completeness
3 - The game feels complete and reasonably polished. There is a bug with energy consumption after game restart after failed attempt, but it have workaround.
3 - Everything's there.
Aesthetics
3 - Really nice pixel art. Quite a lot of details. Different areas look different and have suitable furniture. Background music adds to atmosphere greatly.
3 - Low-res pixel graphics look fine (consistent), controls are simple, and the ambient music adds a lot to the atmosphere.
Fun
2 - The game can easily be unwinnable, so you might need (much) more then one attempt to beat it. And it is really very simple (once you figure out what to do) and short, hence replayability is very low.
2 - The lack of balance detracts from the fun. This plays like a puzzle game, but the map generation doesn't guarantee that a game is even winnable with optimal play, which can be frustrating. You have to \"get lucky\" to have a map that won't outright kill you, and hopefully give you enough resources to survive. I had one game where everything was broken, but there were only 2 repair kits to be found, and another where an alien spawned right on top of me, killing me instantly, then another where I found a dozen repair kits and blasters!
Innovation
2 - Oxygen distribution as a resource is an interesting twist. You can't walk the same path many times. But cheap teleport neglects it's importance to some extent. IMO this theme could be explored and developed even more.
3 - The area-based oxygen-as-resource mechanic is good for gameplay since it affects positioning and limits possibilities.
Scope
2 - For a two man team is about right for 7drl.
2 - A multi-man team should be able to handle a little more in 7 days, especially to improve the balance. This idea has more potential in that regard.
Roguelikeness
3 - It's a little too shallow for a true roguelike. So it's 3, but very weak 3.
3 - More puzzle than a normal roguelike, but it does have random map gen, turn-based gameplay, a weapon (which doesn't ever seem to hit), and resource management (oxygen).
This game is a survival on a space station that is falling apart. Breaches appear, aliens invade it, everything is broken. You need to repair and turn on energy generator(s) and then repair and turn on emergency beacon. While staying alive and having some oxygen to breathe.
Escape from a space station wreck before it falls to pieces, or you're eaten by aliens. Restore power to vital systems and call for help. In the meantime, visualize oxygen levels to stay in oxygenated areas. You can teleport short distances in a pinch, but only if the station has enough power. Rogue Station plays more like a puzzle game than a roguelike, but isn't guaranteed to be winnable so it can be frustrating while you wait for a map that won't kill you outright. The graphics and atmospheric ambient music work well, at least, and the mechanics are solid--with a little more balance this could be a great game.
Dice Mines
Completeness
2 - Unfortunately the game hangs a lot. And there are some bugs in targeting. Other then that it seem feature complete and works.
2 - Some bugs and weird hanging/crashing issues but otherwise very complete.
Aesthetics
2 - Quite nice and atmospheric ascii view of the mines. The game have a lot of ranged combat and spells, but there is no autotargetting. You have to manually target the enemy across the chasm from your current position for each shot! I wish there was a little more detailed event history. Several times I died for an unknown reason.
3 - Looks great, especially for ASCII. The levels have a nice feel to them.
Fun
3 - There is a lot to do and a lot is going on. Your party is quite smart. I really wish fixed version to play it more.
2 - Definitely fun! Even just getting a huge group of 8 dudes killed is fun, watching them all run around and jump across chasms and shoot missiles and yell at each other.
Innovation
2 - True party with separate characters controlled by AI is not really new idea, but this one is implemented really well.
2 - The AI party mechanic is very cool. More roguelikes need better ally systems like this.
Scope
3 - It's huge! I'd give it 4 if possible.
3 - Impressive for seven days.
Roguelikeness
3 - Yes, it's a roguelike.
3 - Definitely a roguelike.
This game is ... overwhelming! You lead a party of up to 8 people (counting you). Each member of the party have some quite detailed background, some equipment and some abilities. All the abilites are dice fueled. And dices are dropping from almost all monsters. Field of view is combined from fields of view of all party members.
Dice Mines is lots of fun. You control a massive party of heroes, but they are mostly autonomous. They run after monsters and get into fights and pick up weapons all on their own. Sometimes it is a bit annoying, but taken within the context of the game it's a great mechanic. The other cool mechanic is (as the name implies) the Dice-based nature of everything in the game. Damage, abilities, etc all use dice, which you pick up as the game goes on. You can apply any dice roll to any situation. So you could use a 2d2 or a 1d6 or a 2d8, depending on how important or critical the roll is to you.\ \ Graphics are ASCII but done with some kind of libtcod-esque generator and look great. It supposedly plays in browser but use a standalone flash player if you want a seamless experience, mine hung in the browser a few times.
Down Below
Completeness
3 - It all works together quite nicely. I didn't find any bugs.
3 - Runs fine, and has a complete set of levels, including even an intro.
Aesthetics
3 - The aesthetic for most of the game is a basic set of ascii characters, which is fine. The UI panel for your stats is very nicely done. Also, the \"cutscene\" in the beginning is pretty neat as well.
1 - The entire map and all contents are bright white. It's painful to look at and unnecessarily burdens the player with having to pick out enemies.
Fun
3 - The core mechanics really made this fun to play.
2 - Interesting to try out the pattern-based predictable combat, but the early game was too easy (just run away from everything and find the stairs) while by depth 6/7 there were so many enemies with overlapping patterns that death was almost assured.
Innovation
3 - Great work with the combat system.
2 - The pattern-based combat has been done before, though not necessarily in this same way, knowing also *when* an enemy will attack so you can move to avoid it.
Scope
2 -
2 - Standard 7DRL scope.
Roguelikeness
3 -
3 - Randomly generated maps, turn-based, resource management, ASCII, permadeath...
Down Below is a very interesting roguelike. It is very simple (which is a good thing) and uses a neat twist on combat. I really enjoyed maneuvering around the enemies based on their unique attack patterns and it posed an interesting challenge.
Down Below's design revolves around a single combat mechanic: You know when an enemy will attack the turn beforehand, and if you know their attack pattern (all enemies have their own specific pattern) you can attempt to move to avoid it. You have HP, armor, shields, and energy, and can find batteries to replenish the energy which powers shields and/or your chosen special ability, however you want to apply it. There's no reason to fight enemies since you don't gain any experience and the whole purpose is to find the next stairs, so the early/mid-game is a bit too easy since you can take advantage of the poor AI to avoid most enemies. It gets a lot harder, and somewhat more interesting, when there are huge numbers of enemies to face and you have to try to position yourself such that none of them can hit you. Though really your best chance at survival is to try and face enemies one-on-one, because it's likely that fighting a couple later enemies at once will leave you with nowhere to avoid attacks due to heavy overlap in their patterns. The game could use an aesthetic overhaul since the entire thing is 100% white ASCII; difficult to play for any length of time. But the dev deserves kudos for writing it, as he puts it, in his own programming language.
Find Yer Treasure!
Completeness
3 - Works well, no big bugs.
Aesthetics
3 - Likes nice, controls mostly make sense. Even though it's a 3 it's a low 3 because you have to use the mouse to use items but otherwise can entirely use the keyboard. Having two different sprite sets to choose from is a nice feature.
Fun
2 - Quite a bit of fun, with a good coffee break time needed to win. Would be more fun if there were more enemies. This is a high 2.
Innovation
2 - The item identification is nice and works well with the limited inventory and the survival theme. None of the parts are new, but the whole of it is unique.
Scope
2 - A normal sized 7dRL
Roguelikeness
3 - Very roguelike!
Overall a fun little island survival themed game.
Golden Krone Hotel
Completeness
3 - Works fine, feels complete and rather polished.
3 - No bugs that I'm aware of, very polished presentation and gameplay for the most part. Definitely feels like a finished product.
Aesthetics
2 - The game looks fine, but levels do not look very much like floors of the hotel. Actually they look like anything, but the hotel. It would be nice to see already explored tiles on the screen, in addition to minimap. List of potions is constantly shuffling, which somewhat confusing and inconvenient.
3 - Pleasant pixel art graphics, easy to identify sprites and most environmental features, clear and user-friendly UI (though some features could do with explanation), comfortable control.
Fun
2 - It's a fun game to try. The fun is somewhat ruined by imbalanced greenman. As far as I can tell they grow stronger when exposed to the sunlight. In fast one can grow so strong it will kill you from one hit. Since changing back from the vampire to the human is limited by potions, you have to backtrack constantly, to take full advantage from books and xp from enemies.
2 - Took a while to get into due to poor (absent) explanation of the key mechanic but once you know how it works it's fun and worth repeated visits.
Innovation
2 - The game have couple of interesting twists.
2 - Two or three welcome twists on an established roguelike format.
Scope
2 - It's a very solid 2. Just a little more attention to the environment, and it would be 3.
3 - Gameplay-wise pretty reasonably from an upper-tier 7DRL, but the slick presentation on top of this makes it startling for a 1-week project.
Roguelikeness
3 - 100% genuine roguelike.
3 - Very much a roguelike. Its only non-roguelike features are its simple interface and uncluttered inventory. No complaints there.
This one is great. You play as a vampire huntress, who is vampire herself. Or probably half-vampire? You start in a human form, but at some point turn into vampire. As a human you can read and cast spells, as well as regenerate your wounds. Human do not attack other humans. As a vampire you see well in the darkness and can feed on blood of slain human and beastman. Vampire do not attack other vampires. To turn back into human you need to drink special potion. Will you make it to the 10th floor and kill the vampire prince?
Golden Krone Hotel does basically what I expect from most 7DRLs in terms of gameplay - it’s readily identifiable as a roguelike but with some additional features or twists that make it its own game. Control is straightforward, just WASD to move and a few keyboard shortcuts (numbers for spells, P for potions, etc) though I found it much easier to just keep my right hand on the mouse and click the on-screen buttons for these functions. The core distinctive mechanic here is light and, while it’s a good one, the game does almost nothing to explain it. It soon becomes apparent that pools of sunlight appear occasionally as you move around but it’s not clear why. It took me a number of attempts at the game before I realised the light was coming through cracked-looking blue blocks in the walls. (Possibly windows? Though why they admit light only when broken isn’t clear.) It was longer still before I discovered that I could use the seemingly pointless starting spell, Blast, to crack intact blue blocks and thereby let more light in. It was an unreasonably long time (probably about 45 minutes) before I caught on that the pools of light shift as the day progresses and advances to night, then the next day. It must have been over an hour of play time before I realised that the tiny square with a yellow pattern underneath my stats was showing me the direction of the daylight at that moment. \ \ Possibly I was being unusually obtuse but the mechanics are kept very unclear, which actually didn’t bother me by itself. Leaving you to figure things out as you play can work well, and I never felt frustrated by the process in Golden Krone Hotel. The thing that makes me peg this as a deficiency here is the statement on the developer’s blog that the first room is meant as a tutorial (it doesn’t work as one but that’s beside the point). So clearly he intended this mechanic to be apparent upfront, but it really isn’t. The other major mechanic here is that you sometimes becomes a vampire (after a few hours of play I’m still not clear on what causes this). There are ways to temporarily revert but while you’re a vampire humans attack you, and while you’re a human vampires attack you. \ \ There are plenty of other nice little features. Working out the optimal way to use the spells you can find scattered around, discovering the benefits of lighting and extinguishing torches, and so on - various small touches that add an extra layer of appeal and engagement to the game beyond its core ‘gimmick’. It feels like an adventure, finding any way you can to gain an advantage, because just hitting enemies usually doesn’t work that well. It’s also very well presented, with nice pixel art and bits of music. One final feature I want to note is the way books work. Finding books can have various effects (new spells, fragments of lore, etc) and one effect is to enable you to always recognise a particular type of potion (they all look identical). It’s a nice way of handling potion identification. \ \ I usually dislike browser games but this one is worth playing. I wasn’t blown away by its innovation or floored by its ingenuity, but that’s not necessary. It’s a fun game that does a lot right and very little wrong, and provides a nice variation on the roguelike standards.
Lava Walker
Completeness
2 - While overall game feels complete and relatively polished, there are several critical bugs. I wasn't able to finish the game, because at some point the character stops moving. I was able to open inventory, equip items, drink potions. But wasn't able to move. This happened twice, after severe progress in the game. Also sometimes cooldown of abilities might stuck, making this ability unusable.
3 - Seems very complete and polished. No bugs encountered.\
Aesthetics
3 - Nice pixel art tiles, very convenient and intuitive mouse only controls.
3 - Nice clean stylised pixel art. It's a little hard to tell what exactly different things are supposed to be (most of the wild animals look like llamas, and I couldn't tell whether the player character was supposed to be wearing a yellow turban or not) but its easy enough to tell different monsters apart. Environments are nice and there are different tilesets for different areas which adds a nice touch of variety. Controls are simple and mouse-based, although it took me a little while before I noticed the 'wait' button.
Fun
2 - The game is interesting at start, but soon enough becomes somewhat repetitive and feels very slow paced.\
2 - It is fairly entertaining exploring and talking to the locals, but the gameplay is pretty shallow and easy provided you keep stocked up on potions and arrows. Since the only way to get these is by trading at villages this involves a fair bit of backtracking and the slow pace of the momement animation makes this more of a chore than it needs to be. It is not possible to change equipment in combat, which I quite like, but this applies even to situational weapons such as the exploding arrows, making them of limited use.
Innovation
2 - While individual elements of the game were implemented before, overall experience feels quite unique.
1 - Fairly by-the-numbers. Nothing stands out as being particularly innovative.
Scope
3 - This game is definitely beyond your average 7drl.
3 - An impressive amount of content, including many different equipment and enemy types and several distinct locations to explore.
Roguelikeness
3 - Somewhat simplistic, but yes, it's a roguelike.
3 - Yup, although a fairly simple one.
Evil dragon is building up his army to conquer a lot of things including your village. You need some cool boots to walk on lava, since dragon's location is surrounded by it. This is a roguelike on hexagonal map where you clear locations, loot for better items, purchase abilities and potions from NPCs.
A very impressive effort for seven days, Lava Walker sends you on a quest throughout a massive world with several different themed areas and a plentiful variety of enemies to face and NPC villagers to meet. Unfortunately, while huge in scale, the gameplay itself is fairly simplistic and does not boast much that you will not have seen before. The large scale actually works against it in some respects - the large open areas combined with not much in the way of direction mean that you can spend a long time wandering fairly aimlessly and once you have worked out the attack abilities of each enemy type it is then a case of slogging through a lot of them to reach the next area. The equipment upgrades, while plentiful, are also fairly linear and consequently not that interesting - it is never too difficult a decision whether or not to swap out one item for another.
Wild West Roguelike
Completeness
3 -
3 - While there is no end since the point is to achieve a high score, it's got everything it needs to be a game.
Aesthetics
3 - I really liked the graphics. One thing that really stood out was that shells would fall to the ground each time you fired. Making them stay on the ground permanently might even make it better.
3 - Simple but appropriate visuals, with a few basic sound effects to reinforce the action.
Fun
2 - The game was fun. It could easily get better with a bit more thought.
3 - The maps are just the right size with just the right number of enemies, some with short-range attacks and others that can hit from afar. The game rewards careful tactical play, making the next high score always seem within reach.
Innovation
1 -
2 - Interesting control scheme for a turn-based roguelike, moving with one hand and targeting via mouse.
Scope
2 -
2 - Simple (a.k.a. tight) mechanics.
Roguelikeness
3 -
3 - Turn-based play and resource management on randomly generated maps. Yup.
Pretty good roguelike for a first roguelike. The art was good, the game worked well with little-to-no bugs, it was difficult, and there were some interesting tactics you could use.\ \ Overall I liked the game for a 7drl. If I were to give some advice, I would say work a bit more on the AI in the game to make it more predictable and to add more options for the player. There are some interesting approaches to doing well in the game, and there could easily be more with a bit of work.\ \ Good job
A fun roguelike in which you play a cowboy killing (or running from) bandits, bears, and snakes in the desert. The control scheme is interesting: Move with WASD and aim with the mouse, and don't forget to reload your revolver! Collect ammo and medkits to survive longer while trying for the highest score possible. The game borders on puzzler, since you can see all enemies and items and the entirety of the small maze-like levels, and attempt to avoid confrontations when possible/desirable (though they tempt you since the goal is a high score). Oh yeah, and bears can even eat the snakes!
Assault Fish
Completeness
2 - Mostly works as intended, though I crashed out with a null pointer exception after playing for a while each time. These have possibly been fixed since the 7DRL, but I'm reviewing the original.
2 - Mostly complete but I'm not sure if there is much of an end game? The fishing is great. Crashed on me once.
2 - Mostly complete, but I have to give a 2 because of a handful of major bugs. Enemies \"died\" but then sometimes reappeared the next turn. The game also locked up on me several times. Another behavior which seemed like a bug was that the enemies appeared to be able to occupy the same tile as the player, which is really confusing. I might have been less frustrated by these bugs, but killing enemies requires specific resources that are easily squandered and you only have 5 non-regenerating hit points.
Aesthetics
2 - I like the element colors themselves, though the map tends to be a bit *too* colorful making it difficult to pick out enemies which are represented by a thin-lined sprite. You should change up the visuals so that less important features are comprised of fewer pixels and elemental locations stand out more. The fishing ponds look okay, the gradient helping to keep them from being too boring. The wide font makes it a bit difficult to read the help screen, which compounds the fact that the controls are a little difficult to get used to being mouse only despite the interface lacking any obvious buttons.
3 - Looks great. Music is great. Controls are mostly mouse-centric but that's OK.
2 - The fishing screen looks great. The music is very soothing, though hilariously melodramatic considering the ridiculous theme. The controls are rather simple, but I couldn't exit the fishing screen in the middle of a cast. The ASCII looks fine with the exception of the enemies. They're represented by (I think) a snowman glyph that has a really thin outline on my system. Combine that with some bad color clashes resulting from the enemy/background type and the enemies can be extremely hard to see sometimes.
Fun
3 - This game is surprisingly fun. It could be much better if the enemies weren't named \"[something] man\" and represented by the same recolored sprite. Walking around and making sure to have the right fish in stock, and changing the landscape as a collateral effect of throwing fish and defeating elementals was interesting. While I understand that fishing should be somewhat random, I wonder if making it a *little* less so by having the casting bar match the width of the pond above it would make it a little more fun since you could better aim for certain fish/areas.
3 - It's fun! Also it can be very relaxing when you are just fishing. Sounds weird but it's true. Try it next time you are stressed out.
2 - Fishing is fun, but it's more luck than skill. Killing enemies by choosing the corresponding elemental fish is kind of fun, but not very deep.
Innovation
3 - Combining fishing with terraforming and a broad system of rock-paper-scissor mechanics... Yeah, pretty unique.
2 - The color wars style elemental destruction combinations are really cool. Gameplay wise there is not much else there but that one feature is very cool and very in-depthly explored.
2 - The first roguelike I've played about throwing explosive fish at elementals! Elements having specific counters is not new, but it's very streamlined here. There may have been more complex mechanics having to do with the splashing of elements (e.g. covering a section of floor in acid), but I couldn't figure out the significance.
Scope
3 - Assault Fish contains what is essentially two different game modes (though fishing isn't too complex, it's still another mini-game to implement), and a good amount of content on top of that.
3 - About what I'd expect for a 7drl. Solid scope. But the FISHING SIMULATOR pushes it over the edge. Nice!
2 - A small, but typical scope. One kind of enemy with a handful of various element types. I never found anything besides the single level and that wasn't big enough to require scrolling.
Roguelikeness
3 - Although the game relies on a very un-roguelike fishing mini-game to acquire resources, I still call this roguelike enough for a 3.
3 - It's a roguelike!
3 - An inventory of fish, resource management, roaming a dungeon, etc. Your character never gets better though. While I think the fishing screen is one of the coolest parts, it does make the game modal.
Collect fish of various elements in a fishing mini-game where you see yourself and a pool of some substance (acid, water, magma, etc.) from the side. Then take those fish and throw them at elementals roaming the land. Pools of various substances are scattered randomly throughout the area and elementals can only be killed by the substance that counters their own. Thus you always want to keep an array of various kinds of fish available to deal with different threats. You can of course run over to a pool and try to fish up some \"ammo\" while enemies are approaching. All throwing attacks have an area of effect, sometimes quite large, and not only are elements within it affected, but the pools inside may be converted to another type as a result. The game is surprisingly fun and the creator is apparently still releasing updates to improve the game, so try it today! [/commercial]
ASSAULT FISH. This is hands-down the best roguelike fishing simulator I have ever played. The music is great and eerily calming. I kind of wish there was a version of the game where you could just fish and listen to music and not worry about monsters. This is a game about elemental color combinations. Blue (water) kills White (air). Orange (magma) kills Blue (water). Acid kills Sand. Blood kills tar. Etc. The elements all have their own colors, and their own monsters. Your weapons are elemental fish that you must fish out of elemental pools. You start out with a liberal supply of fish of each element, but you will need to supplement your inventory at the pools. The fishing part is great fun and I won't describe it because you should just go play it. Throw the right fish at enemies to destroy them, but watch out because you can inadvertently change the terrain and other enemies with your elemental exploding fish.
In Assault Fish, you play a fisherman fending off elementals by catching explosive fish and then throwing them. I was happy to see the element counters described on the help screen, but it would have been even better if the counters were shown directly on the normal UI above each fish stack. As it is now, the help screen needs to be consulted too often. You have to check this game out if only for the fishing mode. It manages to include casting power, fish density, and represents it all nicely in gorgeous ASCII. It's rather amusing to find yourself throwing your lure into a lake of blood and pulling out a vampiric squid. It's also fairly relaxing until you realize enemies are surrounding you while you fish. And once you're surrounded, it can become difficult as you only have 5HP.
Impera
Completeness
2 - Seems bug-free and polished, but could do with more balancing.
3 - Stable and runs smoothly in a browser. Includes useful help page.
3 - Didn't encounter any bugs and everything feels polished. A few very minor tweaks could be added: have the maximums shown on the upgrade screen (instead of the last value) and add better descriptions to monsters.
Aesthetics
3 - Very pretty ASCII game with simple controls.
3 - Great looking ASCII, simple controls.
3 - This game looks amazing! Frankly, I'm not a big fan of ASCII. Not only does it look boring sometimes, but I think it makes it difficult to convey information quickly. In Impera, however, each level introduces only one or two new enemies and you aren't overwhelmed with bizarre letters. Then there's the sweet lighting effects produced by lava, corpses, and mages. I even appreciated the ASCII art in the start and end screens.
Fun
2 - Definitely good, especially on the first few runs as you learn the best tactics against the different enemies. However after many playthroughs it becomes less interesting, with the solutions obvious and sometimes tiresome to perform. For instance chasing enemies into corners so you can hit them is only novel once. Personally I really enjoyed the 1HP mechanics!
2 - This could easily become a 3 more balance. The concept is sound, but it does't seems possible to avoid \"unlucky deaths.\" For example, I didn't see a way you could guarantee survival in a confrontation with the \"Fools\" common early on, since they move randomly so there's no way to approach them without possibly dying if they happen to move towards you at the same moment. Also, simply walking across the map is a bit tedious since ranged-capable mages can suddenly appear right on your line of movement and kill you, forcing you to move slowly to make sure you see them first (the game should somehow pause action or otherwise prevent deaths like that).
3 - Placing walls and navigating around the unique monsters is quite interesting. The mechanics are so fun I have absolutely have to give a 3, even though there are some big problems. The biggest is that too many enemies are no-brainers. Fools move randomly, so you have to dance with them until you hit the 1/8 lottery and they move into a tile you can attack. With careful play, they're no threat. Cravens are similarly boring. You can waste a bunch of walls to corner them, but otherwise it seems to take a lot of dancing to get rid of them. I wish both of these enemies were redesigned or removed. Maybe they could just disappear once all other enemies are killed? Mages can also be pretty annoying because they can teleport right into your line of sight. I hate that I have to move so carefully even when I'm currently facing no obvious danger.
Innovation
2 - Deserves a 2 for some of the interesting enemies, and for showing how much you can do with just variations on movement patterns. For an extremely simple game it has a lot of depth!
2 - Puzzle games like this are quite common these days, but it's a more recent phenomenon so I'd still call this one fairly innovative in that there is only one type of attack and your other ability is to place walls.
2 - I'm not sure there's any individual feature here that hasn't been done before, but the way it is put together makes it different than anything I've ever played.
Scope
2 - It's a small game, but very nice for it :)
2 - Standard 7DRL scope.
2 - Most of the scope comes from various monster types, each with unique behavior. Otherwise, it's fairly small in scope: no items, tiny levels and only a handful at that. I don't think it would be improved by having bigger scope though.
Roguelikeness
3 - Very tactical, lots of thought into moves and into how to take down enemies. A lovely little roguelike!
2 - More a puzzle game than a roguelike.
3 - Missing a few things you might expect in a roguelike (no inventory, exploration, or discovery), but it definitely feels like one. Being rather weak (almost no abilities and 1HP) and the complexity of enemies sells it for me.
This is a great game that I think everyone should play just to get an idea of how much you can achieve with so little. You have one hit point (as do the enemies) and you have to rely on learning their movement and attack patterns to defeat them without risk. Putting the cursor over the enemies shows their abilities, but it's up to you to figure out the best tactics to defeat them. It's really fun, especially the first few playthroughs, but unfortunately it can get a bit too simple after many plays. The solutions become obvious and their execution doldrum, with mistakes only happening because of laziness. The game would be improved by much smaller levels, interesting terrain, and more variety in enemies (and removing the Ks - they present little challenge and are annoying to kill).
Play a mage who can only place walls to block enemy movement and bump to kill them. If you're hit you die, so tactical positioning is everything, and you must be sure to know the unique behavior of each enemy (available by reading their descriptions). The action plays out on levels mostly open aside from randomly placed pools of lava, and while depicted with simple ASCII, the color gradients and \"smoking lava\" give the game a nice visual appeal. At each level you can choose to increase the number of walls you can place, or increase your movement speed. Overall Impera has the beginnings of a potentially great game, but seems to be lacking some balance (see specific notes).
In Impera you play a once powerful wizard who has only 1 HP and can only do two things: attack orthogonally and place walls. What seems like a simple premise actually turns pretty complex because of the interesting enemy types. Having 1 HP and no wait key makes it all very puzzly. It's very easy to get yourself in a bad situation, whether you're flanked by enemies or walled in by obstacles. Each move has to be carefully planned out because some enemies can teleport into a position to attack you. The game looks absolutely amazing though simple: vibrant colors and really neat lighting effects. I'd like to see some improvements. The game seems artificially difficult because of\ \ 1) no-brainer enemies that are time consuming, which unfortunately seem to be the most common enemies\ 2) mages constantly teleporting right into position to attack you with no warning (and no range indicator)\ 3) enemies with poor descriptions; I still have no idea how the Shade works\ \ Because of those issues, I've not been able to beat the game despite many tries. I'm not even sure the developer has beat it! Overall, however, this is one of the best 7drl entries I've played this year and well worth your time.
Here Be Dragons
Completeness
3 - Bugs are minimal, feels like a reasonably polished game.
3 - The game is complete, polished and practically bug free.
Aesthetics
3 - Very thematic look with good use of a small number of colors.
3 - The controls are easy to get a hang of and the graphics are beautiful.
Fun
2 - Pretty fun to play but with very limited tactical options on a per-fight basis it gets repetitive. If more of the planned skills get implemented it will probably be very fun indeed.
3 - The game is a lot of fun.
Innovation
2 - Having the party members basically be your equipment is a lot of fun. It works here as well as it does in FTL. It's also a nice touch that when your party is wiped you can continue from where you left off if you've found enough people to form a new party.
2 - Not all that innovative but the party based idea is something I haven't seen before.
Scope
2 - A good level of randomization and gameplay elements.
2 - This is about what I'd expect from a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
2 - As roguelike as can be.
2 - It's a roguelike apart from the fact that you can continue after death if you have enough adventurers.
This is a pretty fun game that makes good use of minimal assets to deliver an interesting gameplay experience. It uses party members as equipment basically so as you get different party members you also get different abilities. One really neat thing is that you start with four members (a full party) but can find more during your adventures. Each time you go to a new area you can pick four out of all your collected people to journey with. If you die, you then select a new group of four to go forth. Of course if you don't have four left, permadeath time!
Here Be Dragons is a fun, party based, browser based roguelike. It has nice graphics and easy to learn controls. Each member of your four person party has special abilities such as empathy, a trait which allows you to know where the campfire (place where new members can be recruited) is, traits like this make the game significantly easier. The game also feels complete and quite polished.
Sucker
Completeness
3 - Didn't see any bugs. Everything seemed to work just fine.
2 - As long as you’re not using AVG (which blocks the game) you should be fine.
Aesthetics
2 - I want to give this a 3 here, as all the bad guys were clear, but the display just seemed a bit too busy, can be hard to spot if you are on suck or blow, or example. A very strong 2.
2 - Controls are unintuitive with major actions assigned to weird (to me) keys like * and / but easily configured. Visuals alright, unique to this game as far as I know, objects easy to distinguish. Music reasonably pleasant, sporadic jangling bell/checkout sound very much not.
Fun
3 - Bam! The funnest game I've played so far. The sounds really help. The sucking and blowing and trying to dodge the freakin' reds squares so I can line up a shot. All good.
2 - Some fun and would be much more fun if not for the almost game-ruining enemy behaviour. See main review. With refined enemies, lots of potential for enjoyment. As it is, frustrating but still worth a go.
Innovation
3 - I have never seen these mechanics in a roguelike or in any other game.
3 - While still being recognisably a roguelike, the suction mechanic and the way it's implemented really make this a fresh experience unlike anything else I've played. Creative ideas.
Scope
2 - Solid scope for a roguelike. Maybe I just didn't make it far enough to see, but more enemy types might have been good.
2 - Reasonable for a 7DRL. Focuses on making sure it has one core interesting mechanic.
Roguelikeness
3 - This is exactly how you make a roguelike. Each game gave me something different. Different items to find, different bad guys (though the red, white and black ones seemed a bit samey, the red square and blue/green square were good variety), different lay outs. I didn't see different environments, but again I wasn't able to get too far. It was turn based, tactical, item management, permadeath. A shining example of how to be innovative as well as still scratch that roguelike itch.
2 - Recognisably a roguelike thanks to procedural turn-based play numpad movement and challenge. Needs thought and planning. Suction mechanic changes a lot of fundamental roguelikeness though.
This is one of the best games I have played in the competition so far this year. I really liked it. You have to pay attention to the controls and the mechanics though, or you could definitely get frustrated.\ \ You play a guy with a vacuum cleaner. You an suck stuff up into the vacuum. Most bad guys can get sucked in. Then you can shoot them back out. You can suck up items too, and put them down where you want them. Or shoot them at bad guys!\ \ Find the key, get to the door. Fight, suck, shoot at or run from the baddies. Lots of item management strategy, lots of tactical movement decisions, it really is a great game. With fun sounds too!\ \ Pro Tips: You can only carry one item on you, but can have many in your vacuum. Red square bad guys cannot move diagonal, so you can run from them easy and get enough range to shoot them.
Roguelike in the sense of procedural, turn-based and difficult but mixes things up with its suction mechanic. Use your futuristic vacuum device to suck in enemies and items as you explore. You can carry one item in a useable slot; anything inside the vacuum device is inaccessible. The aim is to get as much treasure as possible and escape. Sucked up objects and enemies stack in order, which makes it play almost like a procedural puzzle game. You can expel sucked up items/enemies in reverse order, most recent first. If you use all of your steam (fuel) you can expel an item with enough force to act as a weapon. I like this - attacking an enemy is difficult and requires thought, even a bit of preparation. Enemies are a serious threat. Unfortunately, too much so. You can’t attack an enemy when it’s next to you, and most enemies move at the same speed as you, so if one gets close when your device is already full, the game is basically over - no room to suck it in, no room to shoot. It’s also a bit of a pain that you can only carry one useable item, so if you find the key to the exit you have to take it to the door then go back for first aid or other item you might want (unless you have room in your vacuum and don’t have to release lots of enemies before you can get to it). All in all a really nice idea with lots of potential but the enemies need to not stay glued to you the instant they get close. That’s the most frustrating part, and what stops me wanting to keep playing.
Trinkets
Completeness
3 - The game is bug free and reasonably polished.
3 - Is this game a finished piece of software? Just how polished is it, including balance and expected features?\ I am giving this a 3 because I didn't experience any bugs and the game felt polished. It works perfectly well.\
Aesthetics
2 - Generic libtcod game. Functional, but doesn't stand out in a slightest. Inventory management could be more user friendly.
2 - Is the game aesthetically pleasing? Are the controls easy and intuitive? As a roguelike functionality is more important than outright charm - a well laid out ASCII game can get a 3 and a messy graphical game with bad controls can get a 1.\ This gets a 2. There was some features that took a bit to figure out, there isn't a confirm on leaving the game, and the item menu could probably go back to the menu after you leave a specific items description.\
Fun
2 - Dragons are so powerful, that you are either end up with unbeatable combo, and kill them easily, or you will die in 2-3 turns. I wish the game was generating more useful items. It's worth trying, but once you beat it couple of times you will find that winning receipt is the same.
3 - Is it enjoyable or compelling to play?\ I would have missed out if I had not played this game. It gets a 3, the first 3 I have given out for fun and it is well deserved. I enjoyed it very much and am happy I played it. Completely and totally worth my time.\
Innovation
1 - While playing the game I had a feeling that I already played something with similar concept. Pugnacious Wizards from last year 7drl challenge! It's not about items with magical powers, yes, but it's about magics with several effects. Majority of trinkets have several magical effects on them. Heal, but freeze yourself in place. Damage an enemy, but disable your own attack for couple of turns. And so on. Another game from last year's challenge also was about creation of compilation of useful spells from random assortment, can't recall the name. So idea was already explored and this attempt doesn't bring anything new.
2 - Does the game bring new ingredients to the table? Never before seen mechanics or weird twists on traditional elements?\ It has neat twists to the game play so it gets a 2. Some of the stuff is straight forward but the spell failure mechanic is an interesting twist.\
Scope
2 - It's ok for a 7drl. I guess majority of time was spent on random magics generation.
3 - How ambitious was this project? Rich and deep content, a large featureset or even an impressive kitchen sink roster can count here. Measure what was done, not what was planned!\ It is beyond what I expect from 7 days so it gets a 3. It feels very interesting and has a nice story.\
Roguelikeness
3 - Roguelike by all means.
3 - 7DRLs often push the bounds of the genre. As such, it is unsurprising if they push right out! Please do not consult the Berlin Interpretation - this should be about how you think the game feels rather than meeting an arbitrary checklist.\ 3. Its a roguelike. There is no question about it, this is a classic roguelike. There is nothing else I can say about it.\
Mighty wizard busy with not so noble thing as stealing trinkets from someone's vault suddenly started to loose his powers and had to resort to powers of cheap trinkets scattered around. While fun on paper the actual implementation of this idea is somewhat boring. Powers of trinkets are so random that you might end up with unbeatable supercombo or with pile of unusable crap and get your ass kicked pretty quickly. Core idea has potential, but to make it interesting the game needs more enemies with different abilities and more useful abilities to create more tactical situations.
I did a video where I play and review of it Here:\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52YmbtxMBy4\ If you don't want to watch the whole thing then the link below will bring you directly to the part where I go and actually review it:\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52YmbtxMBy4&t=60m30s\ And if you really don't want to watch the video below is a good approximation of what I say\
Knight
Completeness
3 - It's a full game! And a good one, too ;)
3 - No bugs that I’ve noticed, and feature complete for what it sets out to be.
2 - Very stable, plays very well, but is lacking in content.
Aesthetics
3 - Good color choices make everything easily identifiable.
2 - Looks like a roguelike. Castle interiors are pleasantly busy but at the same time they look quite cluttered.
2 - Controls very well and looks perfectly fine, but isn't very recognizable. The camera view doesn't follow the player consistently.
Fun
3 - This game is great fun. Riding along at full speed and chopping off bandit heads then shooting arrows at foes in other directions is great. Really captures the \"lone knight out in the field\" feeling.
1 - It’s worth a try to experience the novel movement mechanic, and maybe more patient people than me won’t be frustrated with the gameplay, but I can’t recommend playing it.
3 - Very fun and fresh to play, satisfying to shoot arrows from your horse and and speed past enemies while attacking them with your sword, or running them down.
Innovation
3 - The unique gimmick is executed wonderfully. It takes a couple tries to get used to controlling the momentum of the horse, but I've never played anything like it.
2 - Takes some things that we’ve seen before and introduces a novel movement mechanic, which acts as the centrepiece of the whole game.
2 - A very nice twist on the usual rougelike mechanics but the controls of the horse aren't anything new as we have seen vehicles in roguelikes before.
Scope
2 - Seems average for a 7DRL in terms of content, but this is not really much of a drawback in the bigger picture because while simple, the mechanics are quite tight and result in a fun game. One addition that would be helpful is some kind of simple minimap showing the keep locations and which you've already visited.
2 - Reasonable for a 7DRL.
2 - Nicely polished and very playable for a 7 day roguelike, but as I said before content is somewhat lacking.
Roguelikeness
3 - Definitely not your average roguelike, but a roguelike nonetheless. Maps are still randomized, combat is still turn-based, but how far you move each turn changes with your momentum. Love it.
2 - Although it does feel like a roguelike in several ways, it also deviates considerably. There’s little effective procedural generation (castle positions etc change but it doesn’t really feel like there’s any significant variation in the playing experience) and gameplay is mainly about controlling the horse.
3 - Very much like a roguelike not many people (or anyone) would say it isn't a roguelike.
You are a lone knight visiting the lords of the local keeps to test their loyalty to the king. Kill bandits on the way, and you may just have to high tail it if a lord doesn't like you. The unique gimmick is that you are riding a horse (most of the time), and must control its momentum! With greater momentum you move more than one space per turn, which is required to vault over the occasional obstacle or slice through fleeing bandits with your sword. You can't make quick turns while going full speed (or slow down too quickly), though you can hit other targets from horseback by firing arrows. Lining up a charge and swinging your sword while passing a foe to send his head flying is very satisfying. It's a turn-based game that does a great job of capturing some real-time elements! Be very careful you don't trample anyone while in the keeps, because all hell will break loose if you do.
Knight was one of the games I found most intriguing on first play. You control a knight on horseback, who must visit the five castles of the kingdom and find out which of them are still loyal to the king. To this end, you must guide your horse as best you can, and this is really the main part of the gameplay. \ \ Many successful 7DRLs take one neat, new idea and focus on implementing it well rather than overloading themselves with half-executed concepts. The neat idea here is horse movement. It’s all about momentum, with additional direction key presses accelerating your horse from a walk up to a full gallop, via every speed in between. This means that you have to plan ahead a little bit - you can’t just march over to that nearby castle, you have to angle your horse’s arc around the corner and try not to crash into that fence on the far side. It’s an interesting mechanic and, while it was clearly going to take some practice, I looked forward to getting a handle on it. \ \ I did get a handle on it after a while, but that was only the beginning. Being a roguelike, the world isn’t short of hostility. Bandits will shoot at you as you ride by, and some of the lords you visit are disloyal and won’t welcome you with open arms. This isn’t the problem though. The problem is the horse. \ \ It requires focus and forethought to cross the open countryside. Move slowly and safely, and you risk being attacked more easily by bandits. Zoom past the bandits, and you’ll find it difficult to manoeuvre due to your speed. That’s the easy part though. The horse really becomes a bane when you enter a castle courtyard. \ \ The courtyard is bustling with people - knights and peasants milling around, wandering by, minding their own business. This looks pretty good, and does evoke the feeling of a working stronghold. Unfortunately, ‘minding their own business’ frequently means ‘diving under a horse’s hooves’. It’s frustratingly, teeth-gnashingly easy to accidentally run over a peasant or other milling layabout while crossing the courtyard. Not only do they not avoid you, they often actively walk right in front of you. It’s perfectly possible to cross the courtyard without mishap, but it means painstakingly taking a tiny step at a time, eyeing everyone around you to see where they’re going, veering off to one side to try and avoid any movements that anyone might make. This rapidly becomes tedious and aggravating, and bear in mind that even if you don’t have an unfortunate accident, you’ll have to do this five times. Why do you have to be so careful? Does a peasant’s misfortune matter? Why, yes. Yes it does. There are painful consequences for you as well as for them if you trample them underfoot, as the guards will immediately declare that your collision is an all-out assault on the castle, and they’ll swarm you and and tear you to pieces in just a few turns.\ \ When you have managed to laboriously cross the courtyard, you enter the keep on foot. Movement here is more like a standard roguelike, but bear in mind that an unknown number of these castles are under the sway of disloyal rebel lords, whose troops will attack you without qualm - though only once you’ve reached the far end of the throne room and you’re blocked in by a dozen armed soldiers. This part is another nice idea that doesn’t entirely work. There’s no way you can beat all of the soldiers, so as soon as you discover the lord in question is hostile, all you can do is dodge and weave your way back to the exit, leap onto your horse and obliviously charge back across the courtyard, heedless of the peasants and guards you’re squishing underfoot. They are now the lackeys of the enemy! \ \ That’s pretty fun. It’s nice that the only option is to flee, and the contrast between your careful entrance and your full-tilt, guard-squashing exit makes your escape feel exhilarating. Sadly, it’s then on to another castle to repeat the tedious courtyard creep, and potentially the 50-50 chance of escaping the throne room, if it’s another rebel castle. \ \ All in all, I like Knight’s ideas. The movement mechanic is intriguing and I like the careful arrival followed by headlong flight. The problems outweigh this fun though, and sadly these problems revolve around the very mechanic that makes this game novel. Crossing the courtyard safely is just too difficult. Even after many, many attempts I still had probably a 1 in 10 chance, maybe less, of avoiding trample passers-by, which is effectively an instant game over. This means that despite it’s good ideas, Knight is afflicted with that awkward one-two punch of being both frustrating and tedious. I can easily recommend giving it a try once for the ‘ooh, that’s interesting’ factor of the movement mechanic, but I can’t recommend actually sitting and playing it for fun. Good ideas but they just don’t work very well here. Perhaps another time...
The basic movement controls of a roguelike is probably the most simple aspect of a game of it's kind. Knight feels very different to many roguelikes as you control a Knight on a horse, with it's own speed, momentum and acceleration. This provides a fun amount of things to think about as hitting obstacles in the game at high speed reduces your health, while fences can be jumped over if you're going fast enough. At the same time numerous enemies are trying their best to kill you. \ \ As you can imagine this provided me with a very fresh experience compared to other roguelikes. Unfortunately this plays like a minigame as the content of the game, and the objective isn't very fleshed out. That said this is a 7 day roguelike, so I didn't expect much in the content department. Hopefully Derrick Creamer keeps working on this as I'm sure it could become something even better with a bit more time.
Beware of Strange Warp Points
Completeness
2 -
2 - The game is very playable but I did encounter a few issues. I bought a long range scanner and suddenly the map ID colors stopped working correctly for allied colonies; they were no longer marked after discovery, and even those discovered before the time of purchase disappeared. There doesn't seem to be a way to restart the game after you die; instead I pressed a few buttons and the game crashed. Also a small oversight: There is no way to see your remaining funds while buying at a colony, which would be nice to have for reference without having to leave and come back (or be accused of \"window shopping\" ;).
Aesthetics
2 -
2 - While it doesn't look great, being mostly a bunch of menus and Windows text, it's very functional and there's lots of useful information available in the given window space. The controls couldn't be simpler.
Fun
3 -
3 - The mechanics are great, and the difficulty scales well. Had a lot of fun with this trying out different ship builds and trying to stay in one piece.\ The interface could definitely use a bigger log, and at least needs colors to make it easier to identify what's going on. Things like component loss are pretty important to be lost among the other sentences. Another somewhat useful modification would be to list each ship component only once, and indicate a number for how many you currently have (e.g. Contra-Terrene Engine x10).
Innovation
2 -
2 - Being unfamiliar with Space Empires I can't say how innovative this is in terms of mechanics, but I'll take the dev at his word that this was \"inspired\" by it and thus a 2 is definitely deserved.
Scope
2 -
2 - Standard scope. Slick visuals on top of the polished gameplay would've definitely earned a 3 here.
Roguelikeness
3 -
3 - Definitely fits within the roguelike space, having resource management, turn-based action, randomizes maps, permadeath...
* After winning, allows continued play but pops up the \"You've won\" message after each turn.\ * Very easy for the message log to clear while moving, leading to missed messages.\ * Some inconsistency between popup modal dialogs: \"Components\" menu flashes when trying to focus main window while \"Shop\" silently fails to give focus.\ * Generally good UI.\ * Really wanted to sell components!\ * Fun to play after figuring out how combat worked.\ * Manual was well done!\ * The combat felt like an extension of bump-to-attack with delays. Overall worked well, especially with alpha strikes of Wave Motion Guns.\ * Many of the components didn't seem worth purchasing.\ \
BOSWP is based on Space Empires, which I've never played, but that didn't stop me from having a lot of fun with this game. All you have to do is move (or wait) to explore the galaxy, as all combat is handled automatically, but that doesn't mean there's no strategy involved! In between battles you travel from sector to sector visiting allied colonies where you can trade salvage for new/different components. Despite its simplicity, the system is deep as you have to balance crew, engines, weaponry, and components with special functionality. The game starts off fairly easy, but as you defeat enemy bases they concentrate their resources and the number of enemy ships grows, thereby increasing the difficulty. It works quite well and still haven't managed to win despite playing this longer than any other 7DRL so far. It's a quick game to pick up, and each play is fast, since you mostly just concern yourself with buying the right components as you scout all the planets in the most efficient way possible while looking for enemy bases. While the average review score comes out to a mid-high value, I'd say this is one of my favorites and a '3' for fun is all that really counts, anyway! This game would be really wonderful with a visual overhaul.
Hellspace
Completeness
3 - The game is bugfree and very polished, which is not surprising.
3 - For some reason pressing numpad-5 (bound to the wait action by default) didn't work on my system, but I'll chalk that up to my setup because the action itself does work when used with a different key. Other than that, I was not left wanting for anything. The all-important bundled readme file is there, everything in the game works as it seems to be supposed to, you can even rebind keys. The game's short enough to not really need a save function, either.
Aesthetics
2 - The sprites are nice and all, but these twisting corridors, that supposed to be a cool feature, are actually somewhat breaking immersion. They simply look like disconnected overlapping sprites. Sorry. I think they could be connected by something that at least look flexible. And do not overlap.
3 - The game's got a fairly large amount of pixel art which it makes good use of - every room has stuff in it (and the stuff gets weirder and more hellish toward the end), pixelly blood splatters on the floors and walls as you kill monsters, and so on. The 3 comes from a few quite clever uses of bending the map grid and turning the screen - the effect works really well in action.
Fun
2 - Yes, I know that main criticism of last year's entry was difficulty. So this time around Numeron made the game much easier. And slightly missed again. This time on easier side. The game is just too easy. But the problem that was in RSC is still there. If you won't find right items in time, you will die. But this time threshold of right time is much higher.
2 - I found the game quite easy, to the point that I beat it in one go and barely even needed to use items other than healthpacks - but that's a good thing, 7DRLs should aim to be too easy rather than too hard. Adding a harder difficulty level option would, however, have increased replayability a lot.
Innovation
1 - There is nothing new compared to the RSC.
1 - There's some cool art and clever effects, but I figured those into the aesthetics score already. Gameplay-wise, this is all pretty familiar. There might have been interesting item effects that I missed, though.
Scope
3 - It's really difficult to estimate the game based on the other game and/or pre-existing assets in general. You need to figure out somehow what was done for the challenge. I peeked inside of jar and found quite a lot of sprites with creation date within challenge date range. So I guess a lot of time was spent on drawing. Given the atmosphere of the game, I think this time was spent for good.
2 - This game is all about the solid execution, not the ambitious concept. There's more than enough to have fun with.
Roguelikeness
3 - It's definitely a roguelike.
3 - No arguments here, it's a roguelike.
This game feels like a DLC for last year's Rogue City Scavenger by the same author. You fight your way thru the space station to kill the final boss while picking various gear and items in the meantime.\
It's Doom on a space station, which as a concept I'm not sure is actually distinguishable from Doom. You're the badass dude who flies in and fights his way to hell and back, through a horde of zombies, robots and demons. Conceptually there's not much to say it beyond that.\ \ Your inventory consists of a set of basic items (melee weapon, ranged weapon and armor) which are durable upgrade as you pick up better ones, and tools that you apply - healthpacks, automaps, flashbangs, etc. - which are spent on use. The game is divided in four sections, and in general you get your basic item upgrades pretty quickly in each, but beyond that it's your choice how much you wander around searching for items (and getting damaged) vs. going straight for the goal (whose direction is always clearly shown). Since you can take a fair bit of punishment and there are no big damage spikes in the game, you can generally make pretty efficient use of the full-heal in every section.
Kunoichi
Completeness
3 - One or two very minor bugs, otherwise impressively polished.
2 - On the whole, very slick and full of nice little touches such as being shown the list of killed enemy names on game over. LOS doesn't always seem to work very well - I could sometimes see enemies I was not supposed to and stairs are invisible when looking through walls. A minor bug found when knocking on walls - sometimes the screen shudder effect would not stop until the next turn.
Aesthetics
3 - Its strongest point. Lovely to look at and listen to, with a clean and user friendly UI.
2 - The kanji characters are nice and the intelligent use of colour makes it easy to tell at a glance what is going on. Sound effects are nicely thematic. The only issue is with the controls - there is no way (that I could find) to skip a turn or to change your facing without moving, which makes sealthy movement much harder than it needs to be.
Fun
2 - It’s not the missing link that will make your life complete, but it’s definitely fun enough to be worth playing for at least a short while.
2 - When I first started playing I was planning on giving this a 3, but over time a few annoyances and design flaws crept in. The inability to wait is annoying and makes you feel more like a drunken clumsy oaf stumbling about the place rather than a sneaky ninja. For a stealth game I also found stealth to not usually be all that important - enemies are fairly easily dispatched and I died mostly as a result of walking into enemies I didn't know were there. Capturing also seems a bit arbitrary - sometimes enemies would move to the tile next to me and capture me the same turn, sometimes they wouldn't. I'm not sure if that's a bug or if there are some subtleties to the rules that I'm not getting.
Innovation
2 - Though mostly simple, the focus on stealth over combat and the novel ability to ‘gouge’ holes in walls are unusual.
2 - Stealth roguelikes are fairly rare, although most of the elements here I have seen before in some form or another with the exception of the ability to poke eye holes through walls to scout ahead, which is an interesting core feature.
Scope
2 - I’d be astonished at combining this charming and unique presentation with deep gameplay in 7 days. As it is, the aesthetic toil has been balanced out by simplicity of gameplay design. Fair scope for a week.
2 - A fairly simple game, although I don't think that really works against it in any way - it's as complicated as it needs to be.
Roguelikeness
3 - Pares away a lot of common roguelike trappings but it’s definitely no other type of game.
3 - Pretty much.
When I first played Kunoichi I was pleasantly surprised, shortly followed by unpleasantly disappointed. That changed when I came back to it for review purposes, though. The most striking thing about the game, and arguably its best feature, is presentation. In keeping with its historical Japanese theme (a kunoichi is, I believe, a female ninja) the visuals consist of kanji characters rather than ASCII, which is not only a nice thematic touch but also surprisingly effective for gameplay. Unlike a similar endeavour by a game called Goblin Men to use Chinese characters, Kunoichi doesn’t look cluttered or confusing. I don’t know whether the kanji characters accurately describe the features they represent (e.g. whether a door is represented by the kanji for ‘door’) but regardless, each symbol looks sufficiently different from the others to make it easy to parse what’s going on. This is aided by the colour scheme - floor tiles are brown, walls are a sort of beige, your kunoichi is white, and enemies are red. Where it could easily have looked like a jumbled mess to a kanji-illiterate player, Kunoichi succeeds in making its large, bold kanji characters pleasant to behold and easy to interpret. \ \ The final cherry on this pleasing visual cake is a symbol key on the right of the screen, telling you what symbols are what (though only for the ones you can currently see - another nice touch that avoids clutter). It’s not the type of game to have a dozen enemies flocking around you at once, and your line of sight is limited, so this works very effectively to identify terrain features (doors, exits) and to distinguish between enemy types. The latter doesn’t become an issue until a few floors down, but it’s useful to be told at a glance that the shape charging towards you is an armoured ‘samurai’ rather than the standard ‘warrior’, without having to go through the usual unwieldy roguelike fuss of using an ‘examine’ command. \ \ The Japanese themed aesthetics extend to the sound design too. There’s no music after the title screen but there is a steady background chirp of crickets or similar (familiar from quiet outdoor scenes in many an anime) and sound effects take the form of notes on traditional Japanese instruments. Throwing/retrieving your kunai (throwing blade) causes a gentle twang, being spotted by an enemy is accompanied by a warning note on a bamboo flute, and colliding with a wall is a single drum beat. \ \ This brings us to important part - the gameplay. Being well presented is all but worthless if the game isn’t fun, and that’s why I initially found Kunoichi disappointing. I felt that there was little to the gameplay that it was all surface and no substance. With more play time, though, I realised that I was mistaking simplicity for lack. Kunoichi is faintly a stealth game. There’s no need to kill enemies if they’re not in your way, as there are no items or character levelling systems here. It’s easiest to kill them when they haven’t spotted you, as once they do see you they will chase you relentlessly from room to room, and there’s no combat here with which to defend yourself - once they catch you, you’re done. If an enemy comes alongside you while you’re standing still you’ll be able to knock him out on your next turn, but if you move and he moves alongside you at the same time, the game is over. The main way to dispose of enemies to avoid this situation is by throwing your kunai (shift + direction). You only have one, so you’ll have to retrieve it from the corpse afterwards, but it’s very effective. \ \ The stealth element comes into play in a couple of ways beyond just evading enemies when combat is unnecessary. If you collide with a wall you’ll make a thump that attracts attention - like in ye olde Metal Gear Solid, one useful technique is to get into a good position, tap a wall so the guard notices you, then take him out as he steps into your line of fire. Amusingly, you can also ‘gouge’ - poke a hole in the wall to catch a glimpse of a neighbouring room. Traditional Japanese homes were partially made of paper! It’s a nice authentic touch and also an occasionally useful mechanic. In practice, though, the game isn’t really that stealth-centric - avoid head-to-head combat, yes, but don’t expect Tenchu degrees of sneaking. \ \ There are a couple of very infrequent bugs I observed. Once, I bumped into a wall and then continued shuddering until my next move (rather than a momentary shudder). Sometimes the ‘stunned’, ‘seen’ and ‘heard’ status markers on your character linger indefinitely - I was stuck a with a ‘seen’ longer after I eliminated the enemies and left the floor. It even remained once I died and restarted the game. These are minor and infrequent bugs, though, and don’t affect gameplay - enemies weren’t supernaturally aware of me while I bore the infinite ‘seen’ marker. \ \ The key thing about Kunoichi is that while it isn’t deep or complex, it doesn’t need to be. It’s simple but also fun, and very handy to play for short sessions. The fact that you can start, play, fail and restart in the space of a few minutes without a lot of fuss makes it easy to fall into that ‘one more try’ pattern. \ \ The delightful presentation in both visuals and sound might be the main appeal of Kunoichi, but don’t make the mistake of selling the game short because of its minimalist gameplay style. It’s simple but fun, and definitely worth a visit.
A good attempt at a ninja-themed stealth roguelike. The player themselves has a limited field of view, which renders the experience very tense, however it can also produce annoyance when you step through a doorway to be immediately captured by a piece that has just moved to the tile next to you from out of your visual range. The visuals and sound effects are nicely done and very evocative of the theme. Mostly a very clean and polished game, although let down by a couple of bugs and slightly too obtuse gameplay mechanics.
Power Grounds
Completeness
3 - The game is complete. There was minor technical issue on Mac OS X, most likely it's a problem of java itself.
3 - Feels very complete. Plenty o' polish. Excellent intro screen!
Aesthetics
2 - The game have minimalistic pixelart, which suites it's minimalistic game design pretty well, but it could have a little more detailed instructions. And running a game like this in fullscreen by default is really an overkill.
3 - I love the simple design and stark colors. Controls are nicely done with the exception of being able to use spacebar to restart after I die!
Fun
2 - It's fun to try different combinations of spells and see how they work together. But replay value is not that great. There is a hard cap on high score, so once you reach it there is no point in playing it more.
3 - If you try this game, you're gonna have a fun time.
Innovation
2 - Binding spells to ground tiles is an interesting concept. It's not enough to have a spell. You need to reach it, preferably alive.
2 - The gameplay is minimalistic, but in that minimalism there is innovation and the game is highly focused on making short tactical decisions. Basically it's like a giant stew of roguelikeness boiled down to a single potato.
Scope
2 - It's probably ok for an average 7drl.
2 - Reasonable for a 7drl.
Roguelikeness
1 - It is a minimalistic tactical puzzle.
3 - Definitely a roguelike. It even has fireballs!
It's a nice minimalistic tactical pizzle. It's rather unbalanced, but short play session compensates this. Once you pick a spell gem, it creates/replaces several tiles on which you can cast this spell. Yes, you have to walk and stand on proper tile to cast a spell. There are offensive and defensive/evasive spells.
POWER GROUNDS is a great tactical puzzle-esque roguelike game. It seems simple at first but the myriad of powers and the limited 4-directional movement combine for VERY tactical and VERY fun gameplay. Each room is a grid with blocks, enemies, and power-ups. Enemies are ruthless... do not let them get close to you and do not try to attack them without a special ability, your health is very limited. Walking over a power-up activates it, and colors random tiles of the level a new color (orange for fireball, cyan for freeze, yellow for lightning, etc). If you are standing on a colored tile you can \"cast\" that ability, but ONLY ONCE! Definitely try this one out.
The Littlest Princess
Completeness
3 - A small game with a lot of polish and some nice attention to detail. Could do with a score system though.
3 -
Aesthetics
2 - Worms sound effects are a big plus! Controls are nice, though I have to deduct a point for unbinded keys wasting a turn - this makes it hard to get into a game with initial experimentation of controls.
3 -
Fun
2 - Fun, but very easy when you make use of moving between sides of the level. There is little replayability once you beat it. Highly recommended for getting kids into roguelike style games! Probably deserves a 3 for young age groups as the whole package is very appealing and it's got the right sort of balance for younger players.
3 -
Innovation
2 - Looping levels are a nice touch, but the really fun little twist is the enemy that obeys a different geometry. Calculating moves as the ghost chases is a very cool mechanic.
2 -
Scope
2 - Small but solid product.
2 -
Roguelikeness
2 - The levels feel like they have significant hand-designed elements to them, and combined with the lives system and only 1 enemy actually paying attention to you the whole game comes across as a procedural puzzler rather than a pure roguelike.
2 -
You play a princess who must collect the key on a level before running for the door. Alas, evil gnomes wander in set patterns that will interfere with you, but worst still is the ghost that follows, going through walls and disobeying the grid-based restriction of the character's movement.\ \ What is this ghost really? The guilt of the character's past? Her internal inability to accept her status as an elite, imbued with wealth and power far beyond the starving lower classes? Perhaps some trauma she has suffered and yet to fully process? We do not know! Thankfully she is faster than it (the oppressive fear on onsetting womanhood?) and if she can navigate the terrain efficiently she can keep outrunning the fiend (the weight of responsibility for her kingdom?), nab the key and skedaddle to the next level. The ability to create and destroy walls helps get around to, letting you think through the obstacles to one's royal desires.\ \ The game is kid-centred and very fun for that, with cutesy graphics and sounds and gameplay that had just the right mix of depth and simplicity. Would be great to see a mobile version to help this be more accessible to children, thus expanding the roguelike sphere of influence to a young and impressionable new generation.
I'd hesitate to call this one a roguelike, because the levels seem to be premade, and not randomly generated, though at least the order you play them in is somewhat randomized. Apparently it's designed as a kids' game, and I think it succeeds in that regard, though it is probably a bit on the challenging side for a kids' game - one level in particular I had quite a bit of trouble with! You control a princess who can summon and destroy blocks with her magic wand. Your goal is to get the key in each level, then get to the door. Out to stop you are a bunch of gnomes, who walk in straight lines until they hit an obstacle, and a ghost, which pursues you directly, but is very slow. In addition to summoning and destroying blocks, your wand can also turn gnomes to stone (and turn them back), though that might just be a bug - their sprites change color to the block colors and they freeze in place! Even though it's a kids' game, it's quite a bit of fun trying to puzzle your way through the levels. And the sound effects are absolutely charming! I especially like how walking vertically has a different sound than walking horizontally, so it's not monotonous.
Towers of Trial
Completeness
2 - Missing some help/readme/etc, also found some bugs where I could move out of the level.
Aesthetics
2 - Nothing fancy but better than the usual ASCII.
Fun
2 - Has some interesting mechanics but is obviously not finished. Also it's pretty brutal and possibly unfair/unbeatable in a few places.
Innovation
3 - Self-moving terrain is a great innovation. More roguelike games need to steal this.
Scope
2 - About what I'd expect from a 7drl.
Roguelikeness
3 - Feels like a roguelike.
Towers of Trial is a mostly unfinished 7DRL, as admitted by the developer himself. The game is a bit rough in terms of features, bugs, help, etc. But there are some very cool concepts in here: 1. The terrain moves by itself, but in a turn-based nature. Think of a moving platform like in mario brothers. But instead it turn based. Watching the patterns of blocks and using it to time when you step out into danger is a lot of fun. 2. The ever-spiraling level. There are no stairs, the level is divided into a 3x3 grid and as you advance past each section, the sections ahead open up and the sections behind close off. You may think you are going in a circle but you aren't!
favrl
Completeness
3 - Enemies, inventory items, 10 levels... all in a favicon!
Aesthetics
2 - Being a favicon, it's way too small to be very playable in the favicon, but the blown up version on the site is perfect. While it's not picasso, everything is abstracted nicely and somewhat recognizable despite the restrictions of such a low resolution. Wait, maybe it... is picasso!
Fun
2 - Fun for the gimmicky nature.
Innovation
2 - Been done before with other games, but not a roguelike.
Scope
2 - Standard 7DRL scope.
Roguelikeness
3 - All the elements of a roguelike in a favicon. Amazing.
Pretty neat little roguelike. By the way, that's \"little\" in a very figurative sense, because this entire roguelike fits in a 16x16 pixel area, *inside* the favicon of the website it runs on. Your health is a red bar of pixels across the right side, your magic is the blue bar across the bottom, and everything else, walls, stairs, items, enemies, and you, are represented by 3x3 sprites within the favicon itself. It's tough to play such a tiny game, but the developer was nice and gives access to a blown up version on the site. Maps are randomly generated, and you fight your way to the stairs while collecting health and magic potions from fallen enemies.
horddays
Completeness
2 - Definitely stable and complete. I didn't see any bugs, either. A few things prevented a 3 score here, though: The window title is SDL_app instead of the game's name. Pressing Q exits the game without confirmation, and it's the only key you can press after you die.
2 - With the lack of some sort of combat log it's difficult to follow the action. Otherwise everything seems to work well, just lacking some polish.\
Aesthetics
3 - UI communicates 100% of what's going on, all on a single screen. Sprites look good and give the game some character.
3 - I really like the style, tileset, the directional arrows on zombies, and especially the 3D-ness of the levels and the lighting effects.\
Fun
2 - Fun. It would be great to have some goals other than getting a high score.
2 - I had fun playing for a little while.
Innovation
2 - The stack inventory works. The zombie senses are interesting - I think they'd be even more interesting if they were a bit easier to fool.
2 - I really like the idea of sight/sound/smell being different zombie types. But I would have liked to see these three abilities play a greater role in the game, or at least make that role more obvious. I couldn't really tell the zombies apart from their behavior.\ \ It's hard to tell if the two inventory restrictions are truly interesting ideas or just developer laziness. :-)\
Scope
2 - Zombies with different senses. Several items. Elevated terrain.
2 - I think there's a good game in here, but it needs some more development time to draw it out.
Roguelikeness
3 - Yep.
3 -
Horddays is an arcade style game where you fight and run through hordes of zombies to find the exit on each level. There are 3 types of zombies, each of which tracks you using a different sense (hearing, smell, or vision). At first, I just tried to run because I assumed I couldn't fight zombies barehanded, but it turns out that they go down in 1 hit, so fighting is a good tactic. This game looks great, and everything you need to know is right there on the screen at all times. For an arcade roguelike, it's fun - but I think adding goals other than reaching a high score would be great.
horddays is a zombie roguelike with a consistent, clean visual style. I can see the beginnings of a really enjoyable game in here.\ \ The most glaring omission is a combat log. It's difficult to tell what's going. The readme must be referenced to know what items are what. When you've lost it's not immediately obvious, except that the game appears to have locked up. The only signal is the lack of health ticks. A simple game log would clear most of this up.\ \ Map generation could use some work. Sometimes the exit is placed right next to the start position, so the difficulty from level to level to varies greatly.\
Saligia
Completeness
3 - I didn't encounter any issues.
3 - Very complete.
2 - The game is functional, but seems unfinished. The map is a large collection of random objects solely in place to block LOS. Enemies can move into you LOS attack and retreat in the same turn and you won't be able to spot them. Basically, it needs heavy polishing.
Aesthetics
2 - Controls are not difficult and even displayed right on the main screen itself for reference. The menus are nice, especially the very intuitive and even visually pleasing character generation screen. However, the maps really need a lot of sprucing up. All white except for enemies is unnecessarily plain.
3 - Classic roguelike ASCII style, but a bit small for the characters and both target and walls being white can make it hard to see what's going on. For as complex as the systems are it does a good job of providing the information you need to play for the most part, which is usually the biggest failing in complex games.
1 - Disclaimer: I played this on a laptop.\ \ The graphics are basic ASCII and the controls are well meaning but clunky due to the turn mechanism. Allowing rebindings would have brought this up to a 2, and maybe if I had played on the keyboard.
Fun
2 - I was disappointed that maps aren't more interesting given how unique the rest of the game is. It's almost a bunch of randomly placed walls, and you can wander around for a while before finding anyone. This combined with the lack of animation makes it very frustrating to chase down fleeing enemies, since they can disappear around any number of obstacles and you don't have enough time to find which one before they're long gone. Saligia could be quite awesome with a better environment worth exploring and that could tell the player more about what is an otherwise interesting world.
2 - Reasonably fun to try out the different races and classes, but the directional FOV combined with limited sight distance meant that there are lots of times when you're getting hit by enemies and you have no idea where they are. On one hand it adds to the tactics needed to play, but on the other hand it's annoying.
1 - In it's current state, the game is a chore to play. A single combat can take minutes and, while the developer is clearly attempting to provide more tactical combat, it turns into an exercise in frustration and luck as a single hit to swiftness can cripple you. I'd definitely give this game another look if the controls are tightened up and simple issues like defaulting the character to facing the direction they are moving are corrected.
Innovation
2 - Though Saligia does rely on a standard fantasy setting, the wide variety of interconnected systems and unique attributes definitely deserves a 2 here. Action Point roguelikes are also not too common.
2 - The AP cost abilities and movement are a nice attempt at a semi-simultaneous turn system. Unfortunately because of limited view it often means enemies move out of sight and then attack and you have no idea where they went. Animating them moving out of sight, marking guessed locations outside of the FOV, or expanding the FOV and removing the directionality in it would help a lot with actually being able to use the AP features well.
2 - Multi-move roguelikes seem to be all the rage this year, but the game's attempts to make RL combat more tactical are refreshing.
Scope
3 - I'm guessing much of the planning for the systems could have taken place before the 7DRL week, but it's still impressive to see them all together in the game, including enemies that use the variety of abilities. There's a lot of content and gameplay here despite the lack of interesting maps, which would have been icing on the cake.
3 - The complexity of this game is very ambitious. Lots of stats and abilities and complex combat. And it's pretty well balanced, which is extra surprising in a 7dRL
3 - The dev seems to have bit off more than they could chew (in 7 days) with this one. The help file lays out a game that I would be very interested to try with tactical combat and AP based movement.
Roguelikeness
3 - While the AP system is a bit different than the usual roguelike, it does feature turn-based combat, permadeath, random maps, randomized enemies, resource management...
3 - super roguelike
2 - The game features permadeath and is \"turn-based\
You're definitely going to want to start with the manual on this one. The systems are deep for a 7DRL, covering a large set of skills, abilities, attributes, spells, dieties, and more. Choose from among 7 classes and 7 races, some of which are rather unique like Imps, Ghouls, Incubus, and the undead Draug. You'll explore 10 random maps fighting enemies also created randomly via the same system. Actions are carried out using a set number of AP each turn, more or less like a one-character X-COM, even implementing directional field of vision. You can move about 5 spaces per turn, then end your turn to allow all others to carry out actions in sequence. With the directional facing, stealth is a possibility, and even encouraged through skills and sneak attacks, since you don't stand to gain much from killing everything. The lack of a single value for HP is very interesting: You lose attributes with each hit, and while lost attributes regenerate slowly over time, you take so much damage from one hit that combat is incredibly risky since you'll die if any one attribute reaches 0, which is possible in as little as 2 hits. So it's usually best to avoid enemies. Unfortunately the fun parts of the game are offset by maps that are boring to explore.
Very difficult roguelike with a few awkward quirks, but overall quite worth checking out if you're a fan of very complex systems. There's enough variety of classes and skills to keep you trying new things for quite a while.
but it play more like the original fallout titles with the player able to move a handful of squares and attack
Tales of the Adventuring Company
Completeness
2 - The game feels very polished, but after a while some bugs start to show. some of them are hurting the game quite a bit. Sometimes i can't switch a RIP stone with a new hero, and it's possible to keep attacking with your leader when he's dead (double click).
2 - There are some bugs with health indicators. Barbarian is missing his health number sometimes. And after switching heroes, number and heart filling are not in sync. Sometimes switching dead hero doesn't work. Other than that it works fine.
2 - In this version, I ran into several bugs. Enemies sometimes started with negative health. The hero switching seems to be really buggy. Everything else is polished and I'd wager all of these bugs have since been fixed.
Aesthetics
3 - Hmm, the game looks really good for a 7DRL. I love the looks of the heroes, very cute and diverse.
2 - Nice pixel art here. But 'dungeon' floor is completely missing. The grid look too abstract, which doesn't add to atmosphere at all.
3 - Adorable pixel art! There were a couple nice sound effects too. Controls are done with straightforward clicking/tapping. One nitpick is that optimal play requires you to swap heroes very often and there are way too many clicks required for this.
Fun
2 - I had quite a lot of fun discovering a good strategy, but i wouldn't give it a 3 because of the short length of the game. I really think adding some extra fluff to the game would make it a lot more interesting and fun! However, it's super fine for a 7drl.
2 - It's moderately fun coffee break game. But the luck factor is way too high here.
3 - Until you figure it out, it's a nice challenge. After you figure it out, it's a bit trivial.
Innovation
3 - I really like the concept of the game. It feels a little like a roguelike, but even more like a puzzle. Cool stuff here, a well deserved 3.
2 - While individual elements of the game were already implemented in other games, as a combination of might be somewhat innovating.
3 - The exploration mechanic and enemy grouping is awesome, though it sounds like its borrowed from another game. Combined with the hero abilities, it's quite innovative.
Scope
2 - quite standard, not too much or too little content for a 7drl
2 - Probably what you can expect from a 7drl, but on a lower end of your expectations.
2 - Only two enemies and a boss. Floors are almost identical. The variation comes in the different heroes, but some of them are much better than others.
Roguelikeness
2 - This is a tough one. I've seen a lot of 7drl which aren't actually roguelikes. I really think this game pushes the boundaries, but the turnbased combat made me giving it a 2.
1 - It's a tiny bit of tactics coupled with huge amount of luck tests. And general design is just way too far from roguelikes.
3 - I'd like to see more variety, but I call it a roguelike.
I really enjoyed playing this game. It's a very original concept, and works very well with a mobile interface. It could use some polishing though.
In this game you lead a party of heroes who need to kill the lich in 99 turns. Each hero type have some ability for being a party leader. Some are effective in combat, and some during exploration. And 'exploration' in this game is simple clicking of a grid tiles. Enemies are placed in patters. You can try to open only tiles with enemies by applying the pattern knowledge. And here comes main drawback of the game. Luck is the main factor here. You can find the key to open the exit after the first enemy, or you can find it after the last one. In the last case you will have to 1) find camp, spending turns for this 2) heal your party, again spending turns. Combat choices are more or less obvious, so all you need is luck.
Tales of the Adventuring Company is a party, puzzle roguelike with elements of Disco Zoo (which I had never heard of before this review, but I like the mechanic). You lead a party of up to 4 adventurers, each with their own unique abilities. Get a new party member by finding all their tiles, which are arranged in a set pattern. Similarly, there's a \"quest\" associated with defeating all of a given enemy, but I couldn't figure out the purpose of doing so. It's a short game and trivial to beat once you figure it out. The art is great and it's pretty fun. I've stuck to reviewing the original release, but it appears the game has been developed considerably since then and many of the issues with bugs and small scope have probably been fixed.
The Mana Well
Completeness
2 - * Some additional features would make the game clearer (level up or drop, current floor, what the % learn/cast meant).\ * In-game monster descriptions would be nice ^_^\ * Didn't come across any bugs.\ * Very smooth play.
3 - Simple but complete.
Aesthetics
2 - * A bit unclear about what the bar flashing meant: When I filled it up (gained a level?), guessed that it showed the resource to the next. However, learning a spell also caused it to flash the same way (lost a level?).\ * Having a current/max resource value on the bar would have made decisions clearer (e.g., what the %s meant). Might go against your game goals, though.\ * Sometimes the only way I noticed I died was my resource bar was full again.\ * Resource bar worked well for conveying relative close-to-deathness.\ * Using white and red for spell selection caused some confusion for me when I had two spells. Kept trying to remember which one meant the spell was highlighted. Nice colors otherwise.\ * Appreciated the 2x font!
2 - Minimalist ASCII interface and map, but the font is clear and the few colors used work fine.
Fun
2 - * Solid dungeon crawl feel with meaningful choices.
2 - Interesting mechanic, though it could've been taken further. A little more feedback fo the player would go a long way towards improving immersion. As is there is no log or text of any kind beyond the ability names. The existing abilities also lack/need descriptions.
Innovation
2 - * Twist of merging HP/XP/MP makes the game worth playing.\
2 - A single resource governing every single variable element of the player character is an interesting mechanic. A wider range of abilities would make the tradeoff choices more meaningful. More than just different flavors of damage-related abilities.
Scope
2 - * Very achievable scope solidly executed.
2 - Standard 7DRL. Needs more text, possibly in log form.
Roguelikeness
3 - * Well done on the meaningful choices between spells.\ * Left me wondering if I should've done X in situation Y---great job.
3 - Turn-based, random maps, resource management...
Well executed game that merges HP/MP/XP into one resource. Dungeons feel about the right size and the monster variety keeps things interesting. Would appreciate some additional clarity on that resource since it is so important; otherwise, UI is simple and generally clear. Would be a great introductory rougelike for new players with just a bit more polish.
Dive into this dungeon as a wizard-summoned elemental that relies on a single resource (presumably mana) for *everything*: HP, MP, XP, SP. There is a medium variety of enemies, many of them quite difficult, though made more so by the fact that it can take a while to learn how resilient you are. Using a numberless bar for your resource is an interesting design decision, since it makes the system a little bit more opaque on the surface; technically all costs are handled in percents so the numbers really shouldn't matter, but enemy HP and the damage they do is a number, so the two systems are a bit difficult for a player to reconcile. It can take a while to figure out whether it's worth attacking or avoiding a certain foe in a given situation. The concept is certainly interesting and still worth checking out. Most abilities you can learn (acquired at random altar-like locations in each map) are mostly of the \"do damage in different ways\" variety.
The Smith's Hand
Completeness
3 - I didn't come across a single bug, and no features were noticeably unimplemented. No much to say here which is a I think a sign of its completeness.
2 - This game froze my computer with its default settings. After some fiddling around I found that by manually changing the config to start in windowed mode it would run fine.
Aesthetics
3 - Like the best roguelikes, The Smith's Hand is able to convey so much character with so little. The ASCII graphics are flawless. The coin dropping animation is nice touch, and adds some additional character to the traditional graphics. Even small details of the graphics, like the border around menus, look clean and correct. The only complaint I have is that the dialog of the towns people disappears into the map.
2 - The colors are well-chosen, but as a text-heavy game the square font makes reading it all a slower and more painful process than it should be. Considering that square map dimensions aren't important at all in this menu-driven experience, it would probably make more sense to use a tall font as the default. While the instructions indicate that the font can be changed, you must find a compatible font yourself. Not sure why the game doesn't support in-game font swapping, since the libtcod engine its based on certainly does. The controls are easy and straightforward, since most of the time you're just navigating simple menus to forge, buy, and sell items.
Fun
2 - Again, I played this more than any other 7DRL so far, so it's doing something right. The central hook of figuring out how much to sell weapons/armor for is strong. As I played more and more games It was fun (and difficult) to balance selling for enough gold to craft stronger items, while not robbing the heroes blind. The different materials, coupled with different levels of items you can forge for each material really present you with lots of options. In the end though, hero's deaths felt too random. There wasn't enough different causation from the player's actions, so when a hero died it was usually just annoying. This is probably exaggerated by the fact that world is so static. I would play games exactly the same and have wildly different experiences. The initial couple of hours were a blast, but there's nothing drawing me back in.
3 - This game is definitely lots of fun, though I wouldn't have imagined it possible on my first few playthroughs. It seems that while the game is generally balanced okay, you still have to get lucky early on if you want to have any chance of getting to the mid/late-game. The first few times I played all 4 adventurers who showed up early died immediately even though I gave them the best equipment I could produce, and the village was overrun right away. Maybe this was intended? Once things get rolling, though, the self-contained economy is pretty fun to play with.
Innovation
2 - The idea of playing a game from the point of view of the blacksmith holds lots of potential. It really is a different way of looking at game mechanics that we're all extremely familiar with. The Smith's Hand gets all the basics of the idea right, but I feel like there are lots of avenues that could have been explored further. I may be penalizing it a bit here for the amount of quality found elsewhere in the game.
2 - \"Sell items to adventurers\" games has been done several times before, but this one does it pretty well by including a living, breathing town complete with chatting villagers, and giving you a purposes greater than money because your very village, and possibly life, is threatened by the orcs massing in the cave.
Scope
2 - The town is decently sized and looks nice. There are lots of options for crafting, and the choice of when to add additional forges really adds additional depth. Though, after a couple hours it begins to feel like you've seen it all.
2 - Standard 7DRL scope.
Roguelikeness
1 - The Smith's Hand feels (purposely) like a game on the fringes of a traditional rougelike. The presentation, as well as the controls ,are dead on and are almost enough to earn it a 2 in this category. However, it's lacking so many of the features that are crucial to the genre. First, there is no combat. That's a big hurdle to overcome in making it feel like a roguelike. Also, the town is static between playthroughs. There is randomness in the names of the heroes, and the loot they return with, but its really not enough to feel like a roguelike. A smaller detail is that the lists of materials, what you can craft, and the stats of the items are all visible from the beginning of the game. There really is no sense of exploration which, in the absence of combat, is something I was really looking for in order to capture the feel of a roguelike. I guess the reason I'm writing so much in this section is that I want to be able say its a roguelike, but it just didn't play that way.
3 - Not quite your standard roguelike, but close enough given the theme, and randomness of adventurers that show up.
I spent more time playing The Smith's Hand than either of the other 7DRLs I've reviewed so far, but it's also the one I'd be least likely to revisit.
In this game there is no direct combat, always a nice change of pace for a roguelike. You play a village's lone smith who is out to make some coin selling weapons and armor to adventurers arriving to deal with a growing number of orcs in a newly discovered cave nearby. Every so often an adventurer will stop by your shop and you earn what gold you can equipping them with whatever you've managed to prepare. They then head off to the cave to do battle with orcs. Those that survive may return wealthier and seek to buy better equipment, or bring you items they find which you can melt into ingots for forging more gear. It's interesting to walk around the town and chat with locals on the first playthrough, but the gameplay revolves around your little workshop and occasional trips to the metal merchant at the mountain pass. The merchant is where you'll be spending your gold on ingots of different metals to forge better weapons and armor. If you don't equip the adventurers well enough they'll all die and the orcs will eventually overrun the town. If the orcs do come, you can still escape via the pass and how well you did is measured by the average amount of gold you earned per adventurer. Overall this game is definitely worth checking out.
Blackguard
Completeness
3 - There are no bugs, although it might be difficult to run (no Windows executable is provided, and I had to download SDL 2.0).\
Aesthetics
2 - Dungeons are rather boring, but the PC and other prisoners can change armor and weapons, and their sprite is affected, which is nice. It is not always obvious which weapon/armor are better.\
Fun
2 - I like how the you can pit undead against guards, or lead guards to a trap (a group of your friends).
Innovation
1 - I like how the you can pit undead against guards, or lead guards to a trap (a group of your friends). The fighting mechanics is different than usual -- any blow can be fatal -- but I think this does not work well in a roguelike. Altogether, I do not think it is enough for a better score in Innovation. A high 1.\
Scope
2 - Nothing bad, but also nothing great.
Roguelikeness
3 - Roguelike.
A game where you escape the prison. You meet beings of three factions: guards, undead, and escaped prisoners. You can lead enemies to meet a bunch of your prisoner friends, or make undead fight guards, which is quite cool. Also, your sprite changes when you get a new weapon or armor. The game is fun, although not replayable.\
Cyber Phreak
Completeness
2 - Not very complete but the whistling mechanic saves the day.
Aesthetics
2 - It's in unity so it looks fine. Nothing fancy. Controls are the aforementioned whistling which is worth a +1 for sure.
Fun
3 - It's lots of fun! Definitely worth checking out the whistling mechanic. Just please god don't make me sing.
Innovation
3 - Whistling to control a game?! It's madness.
Scope
2 - About what I would expect from a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
1 - Definitely not a roguelike. Like, at all? But it's still a cool game.
In Cyber Phreak you use your computer's microphone to whistle and interact with doors and monsters. No, seriously, you have to whistle into your mic. It's pretty awesome. Not much of an actual game but definitely fun. Especially fun to watch your friend play using their headphones because they look ridiculous.
Fida'i
Completeness
2 - Typical libtcod+python setup. It is working, but don't seem to be polished.
2 - This is a really high 2, but I couldn't quite justify a 3 because of a few minor issues. Most important to me was the sketchy vi-key support. For example, shift didn't work with the vi-keys. I also couldn't use vi-keys to target. Another minor annoyance was that the game doesn't do anything when you die. Instead of sending you back to the main menu, you have to quit and re-launch the application. That said, the game felt very complete, was stable, and gave me no real problems.
Aesthetics
1 - The game looks very inconsistent. It uses tiles for characters, some weird symbols for walls, and dots for floor. It's just doesn't look like town. There are doors standing in the middle of an open space. There are door with wall behind.
3 - The look and feel of the game is perfect for the game. The controls for controlling the cone fov were intuitive and worked just fine (so long as you use the numpad).
Fun
2 - It could be much more fun if a town would have wider streets and look more like town. Right now it is often impossible to avoid guards. Directional fov doesn't add too much, but irritates a lot. You feel more like a disabled person then agile assassin. It wouldn't hurt if the game implements a little more variety. Like walking on roofs. Stabbing from behind.
3 - I really loved playing this game. Game play was exciting, highly tactical, and interesting. My one gripe is that with the cone fov you fall prey to the lighthouse syndrome. I think this could be solved by adding a small time cost to changing the direction of your field of view. Perhaps it shouldn't cost a full movement turn, but maybe some fraction of a turn, so that turning isn't free. This takes you from the annoying lighthouse syndrome, to making an interesting decision between moving, and acquiring information.
Innovation
1 - There is nothing new here. This theme is already explored well enough. Can't say there are many great stealth roguelikes out there, but this one isn't great as well.
2 - The main innovation here is the stealth combined with the cone fov. This is a neat twist on the usual mechanic, but has been done in a few past 7DRLs.
Scope
2 - Typical 7drl scope.
2 - The scope of this project is about what I expect from a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
3 - It's a roguelike. Barely.
3 - Its a roguelike!
Fada'i is a basic assassin simulator. With directional fov. There is a target person. There are guards, who can see thru your disguise if they are close enough, and there are townspeople who don't care about you as long as they are not alerted. You have gold coins to lure people when they are not alerted and stones to distract pursuers. The last resort tools are smoke screen, choking gas and caltrops. They are mostly used when running away. It could be an interesting game, but IMO it is ruined be inappropriate town generator. Town is just too small and too congested. There is 'kill witness' mechanic, but chances to use it are close to zero.
Fida'i is a stealth roguelike in which you are an assassin taking out various targets. Your target is protected by various guards, who will see through your disguise if you get too close. Fortunately, you have a variety of items at your disposal which aid distraction and escape. The main gimic with the game is a cone fov, which you will either love or hate. Gameplay is intense, highly tactical and very interesting. While I have a few minor nitpicks with the UI, the game is really fun, and you should really check this one out.
Golem Quest
Completeness
3 - Sometimes there is no feedback when attacking (it seems that \"-1\" is not shown). Just a minor thing, so still a 3.
3 - Game seems feature complete and lacks obvious bugs. I wasn't able to get a gamepad working and I only scratched the surface of multiplayer).
Aesthetics
3 - This is the only 3D roguelike that I actually liked. This is enough for a 3 in Aesthetics. Still, I think it is too dark (why do the games have to be dark?), and since there is no grid of any kind, sometimes it is hard to tell whether we can already attack an enemy or not (especially in the beginning).
1 - The game has 3D characters, lacking animations and funky controls (YMMV, I couldn't get the numpad to handle diagonal movement and the the game will use WebGL gampads ... in theory). This game falls into the uncanny valley of aesthetics.
Fun
3 - I had fun running away from the huge birds. But it is not something that I would play more than once.
2 - The game gets repetitive pretty quickly and the combat lacks much in the way of depth. Saved from a 1 due to the ability to form a Conga Line of Death.
Innovation
2 - There were top-down 3D roguelikes in the past, although these attempts were less successful. There were multi-player roguelikes, too. I think this is enough for a 2, although rather low.
1 - The game consists of a single level dungeon with a fetch quest, it feels like a super compressed Nethack.
Scope
2 - 2 (as far as I understand, graphics are taken from opengameart.org and similar places, so they do not count into Scope).\
2 - Most of the effort in this game seems to have been on the graphics engine, leaving the gameplay a bit lean. I wasn't able to try much multiplayer, but kudos for adding it.
Roguelikeness
2 - A bit too simple.
2 - While Golem Quest has some of the trapping of Roguelikes (turn-based, perma-death), it lacks an inventory and the progression system feels more like an Ultima era RPG.
Pretty simple game where you gather powerups (health, attack, defense), fight monsters, and look for treasure. There are two things that make this stand out. First, you can have two players, who alternate turns (I have not tried playing with two players, but players can only move, so this should cause much inconvenience). Second, the game uses a 3D perspective (view from above) -- I think this is the best 3D graphics in a roguelike that I have ever seen, although there are still things which could be improved.\ \ The game is easy on the normal difficulty. It took me several times to win on the hard difficulty -- some enemies are initially stronger than you, so this is a good challenge.\ \ Recommended if you want to see a 3D roguelike that actually looks nice ;) Also, if you want to try a multi-player roguelike with alternating turns, this is also a good choice (although it seems that it does not adjust the difficulty for two players, so I suppose that for two players it is too easy even in the hard mode). Or if you want to try a simple roguelike where you have to run from stronger enemies.\
Golem Quest tells the epic tale of a Golem's quest to collect the various knick-knacks and curios your creator scattered around the tower after a night of binge drinking the ritual wine. Unfortunately, a multitude of monsters roam the grounds with an insatiable hunger for stone, ice, and/or fire. You must fine 4 talismans and return them to the castle while chugging the remainder of your creator's stash (also scattered about the grounds).\ \ The game plays well, you hunt around, rub against monsters and hopefully win, but as it is only one level, it is fairly short. Many of the monsters can wreck you in a couple hits, so buffing yourself up quickly is important. Oddly, the best strategy seems to be to form a giant conga line of monsters (all monster share the same AI and pathing) and to lead them around the map until you have collected enough buffs to win, it actually adds some tactical planning to the combat and saves the game from being a chore to play.
LanternRun
Completeness
1 - See above.
3 -
3 - Very complete. Impressive. Tutorial and monster database is a nice added touch.
Aesthetics
2 - Icons look nice, and the battle screen is okay. Hard to judge without the map.
3 -
3 - Polished. Mouse-only interface works very well. Looks great. Starting menu is the best I've seen. (Sounds silly but that goes a long way) The over all atmosphere is captured in the art and effects as well.
Fun
2 - Hard to tell.
2 -
2 - Definitely worth playing! Combat gets a bit repetitive but the monster strategies make you think a bit.
Innovation
1 - No innovation as far as I have seen.
2 -
3 - The abstracted dungeon is very cool, and the monster party-based strategies is awesome.
Scope
2 - Decent scope.
2 -
3 - Over what I'd expect from a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
1 - The battle screen is like in a jRPG, which is extremely un-roguelike in my opinion. Even though the game claims to have procedurally generated dungeons, I give it a 1 in Roguelikeness for this reason.
2 -
2 - I'll call it a roguelike-like! Because it is missing certain things like item management, tactical combat, etc.
Apparently there is a problem with this game: I see no map. I just see a black screen with some icons on the edges. Sometimes I see some strange things on the edges, which could be parts of the map. I can only click on the map randomly, sometimes I collect some items or run into a battle (which is displayed correctly). The exe does not work, but I can run it with both the Linux and Windows versions of LOVE - the problem exists in both. I have asked another reviewer, and they have the same problem.
Mouse-controlled RL with JRPG turn-based combat. Explore node-like rooms while depleting lantern light and food. Well presented (Doom dead monster sprites!) - pleasant graphics and sound, slick and easy interface, nice bestiary of foes to read, welcome little details like border turning green when it’s your turn in combat. Good tutorial messages. Weird that monsters have multiple action types but player can only attack. A little too luck based - blind random encounters at nodes, similar to FTL. Fairly fun for a little while but not much depth so sustained play can become repetitive and tiresome. No equipment, skills or levels as far as I can tell, so no development or customisation of character.
A really fun mash-up between a roguelike and final fantasy-type combat. The dungeon is abstracted to individual rooms. As you explore rooms, your lantern burns lower and lower. You must balance rest and exploration against your light source and finding the exit. About half the rooms will result in monster encounters. Combat is turn based, and usually against multiple enemies. The enemies have a very cool \"strategy\" mechanic which cause them to switch between attacking, defending, and supporting. Unfortunately I could not see other strategies for the hero other than attacking. Polish-wise is very nice with cool graphics, music, and effects. And probably the best menu I've seen so far.
Mountain of the Gods
Completeness
3 -
Aesthetics
2 -
Fun
2 -
Innovation
1 -
Scope
2 -
Roguelikeness
3 -
Finding yourself adrift with amnesia, you wash up on the shore of an island dominated by a singular towering mountain. The Mountain of the Gods. Nothing left for you out to sea, you brave your way up the titular mountain, facing its many denizens along the way. This game is great, but not easy. I had to pull out all my tricks to survive and wasn't able to complete it. Wait to get the first hit, pillar dance if you have some speed, escape around corners if available and conserve your arrows if you have them. Don't despair though, if you can survive the first couple of levels to get some armor and a weapon your survival chances will increase, and as such its fun factor isn't really killed by frustration of continual deaths... As a full game it is complete, well polished, and perfectly sized for a 7drl. This is also reflected in the aesthetics which are clean and functional. Unfortunately this means there is little innovation present - its a bread and butter roguelike. With the difficulty tuned to survival so close to the wire, I imagine this would certainly not be a negative in the books of the more hardcore players who will definitely find a little gem here.\
Peasant Simulator
Completeness
3 -
Aesthetics
3 - The colors look great and I like the way the game looks overall
Fun
1 -
Innovation
2 - The idea of combining food to eat and food to leave behind is interesting.
Scope
1 -
Roguelikeness
3 - It definitely feels like a roguelike.
The basic concept starts off as interesting, but there isn't much to the game. It looks great and plays really well.
Tox
Completeness
3 - No bugs and very polished
2 - With proper procedural placement, would be a 3.
Aesthetics
3 - The game looks great and works well as a whole.
3 - Graphics, animation, sound, music, title screen, death screen. The full experience. Easy 3
Fun
2 -
2 - Lots of good stuff here, but \"Un-win-able-ness\" really hurts the potential fun.
Innovation
2 -
2 - Definitely some innovative elements, especially the idea of Intoxication. If you get too much, you die of overdose. If you get too little, you die of withdrawal! Different drugs can have different effects as well.
Scope
2 -
2 - Good effort for 7drl. Graphics are very good for the time, but the actual gameplay is lacking (fully functional but flawed). Again, could've been a 3 with more thought to giving the player at least a chance at victory.
Roguelikeness
2 -
1 - Not very rogue-like. grid & turn based. random. But no RL feel.
The game is fun for something you can pick up and play for a few minutes to kill some time. It looks very polished and plays perfectly. The only negative thing I have to say is that the game is a bit shallow, but that is to be expected in a 7drl. Great work
This game has some really nice graphics, animation, particles, music, and sound. It seems to be geared towards mobile devices. It has some really cool systems in it, especially the \"intoxication\" system. There are a lot of ways to die. But I must say this: I can't imagine that this game is actually winnable. There seems to be no control whatsoever in the placement of objects (monsters, traps, drugs, items). Once on level 1 there was a level 39 trap that blocked the only path to the exit. An absolute no-win situation. So I would say, if the devs take the effort to make the game winnable, and control the placement of objects, it could really turn into something special!
Voronoiance
Completeness
2 - Having the developer console running in the background betrays a certain lack of polish, but doesn't detract from the gameplay. The controls are initially intuitive, with diagonals being handled by Q, E etc; however paths between cells can be at any angle, and sometimes it's a guessing game for what the correct key is for the intermediate angled cell you want to move to. One hit kill means that a wrong guess can often be fatal, so the lack of guidance in this regard interferes with gameplay slightly. Perhaps if the available directions were highlighted with a small letter to show which key moves you where, that issue would be mitigated. I did also unearth an occasional bug where tapping multiple movement keys rapidly let you move more than once in a turn - but aside from that, overall the experience was smooth and bug-free. I couldn't call it polished, but it's definitely solid.
2 - The game runs fine, no bugs found, but looks more like a prototype then a game.
Aesthetics
2 - Striking voronoi cell layout is the most obvious thing. The graphics are very simple and minimal, which is fine. The red shading for explosions is a nice touch. I find myself wishing there were more graphical flourishes or at least a bit more variety in terms of cell types and colouring - a little would go a very long way in this regard. The smooth movement of the player and the enemies between the cells is pleasant, but overall the aesthetics are nothing to write home about; antialiased lines and more atmospheric colour choices, as well as a line-of-sight shading system would have taken this up to a 3.
2 - The game looks minimalistic, but functional. Animations are nice. Controls are the most confusing part. As tiles can be connected at any angle, sometimes it's hard to tell what key to press to move at specific direction. For a 1hp game it's a serious flaw. Escape silently closing the game is also not very nice touch.
Fun
3 - Fiendishly difficult, even for a 1HP roguelike. Traditional 1HPs allow you to use planning and strategy to survive, but the narrow corridors here mean there are many situations where you simply have no way out whatsoever. Frustration in these sorts of games is good where it clearly stems from a failure you realise you could have avoided; when it stems from doing everything right and getting trapped anyway, it's mostly off-putting. The arbitrary waiting time at the arbitrarily capitalised \"Congratulations, you Died!\" message is quite annoying; being able to press a key to skip this would have been nice. All that said, the game stays interesting - the technique is easy to learn and difficult to master. In hex and triangularly linked grids, the gameplay is often a lot like Hoplite (a low-HP hex grid roguelike), and at other times it ends up as square grid - this offers the best gameplay of both worlds.
2 - The game plays nicely, but the start of each level is a gamble. You can easily end up in an unwinnable situation. It is very simple, so it grows old very quick. There is no much replayability here.
Innovation
2 - Very simple concept but the voronoi cell idea is definitely a new one to me - and it's been applied to the one-hit-kill gameplay quite well; it's definitely more than just a gimmick. Some thought has obviously been put into the balance of the enemies, as well, and none of those are boring. Aside from the voronoi cell idea, however, the rest of the gameplay is very much by-the-books; some additional innovative features would have earned a 3 in this category.
2 - Both dungeon and enemies are somewhat interesting. Not groundbreaking, but surely amusing.
Scope
2 - The variety of enemies and their different behaviour are really cool - they keep the game interesting, and keep you coming back when you would otherwise get frustrated enough to stop playing. I'd say the enemies are what carry the game; in many cases the voronoi map design is barely noticeable, as it ends up either in square grids or one-cell-wide tunnels in any case. But there are enemies that jump, enemies that leave sticky goo on the cells, enemies that throw grenades, and each takes its own strategy to deal with. I do wish there were some sort of powerups available, either special abilities or some sort of equipment or rewards to keep you interested in playing longer. The game could also be improved with a scoring system to let you know how well you did, or at least how many g's you whacked before you kicked the bucket each round; the only indication of progress is the counter in the top left, and there seems to be no difference at all between the levels of the dungeon.
2 - There are just a few enemies. No items, no variety in dungeon. I guess most of the time was spent on dealing with dungeon generator, but this doesn't add to gameplay much.
Roguelikeness
3 - Definitely well within the realm of the modern minimal one-hit-kill roguelike conception - the movement is strictly turn-based, there are fairly traditional enemies denoted by letters, and you fight your way to the exit through multiple dungeon maze levels.
2 - The game is too shallow to be called a roguelike.
The game is open source on GitHub, and supports all platforms, which are both good ways to earn my approval. Voroni diagrams are always interesting in game design as well, so this seems promising. The game is played on a randomly generated grid of irregular shapes that can have anywhere between one and eight directions to move in, and one touch by an enemy kills you, leading to fast-paced gameplay with a lot of replays. The game certainly lives up to its name, in being high on the frustration factor, but in a good way. The only thing that stopped this game scoring higher was the extremely minimal nature of it - more features could have raised the replayability value considerably.
That's another approach on 1hp mechanics. In this one you don't have any special abilities, but instead enemies have different behaviours and abilities. And all this in a slightly mindbending dungeon made of Voronoi's diagram.
cyberdekay
Completeness
2 - There's plenty of polish here, though seemingly rather little to do. Feels like the game is missing something.
Aesthetics
3 - Looks and sounds wonderful. The pixelated depiction of cyberspace works well and the shifting colors are a great touch.
Fun
2 - Interesting premise, though it's difficult to figure out exactly how to play, even after reading the included text files. Once that issue was out of the way, even after playing for a long time the map felt infinite and I couldn't find an overall goal.
Innovation
3 - Very unique real-time puzzle game.
Scope
2 - What's there is pretty polished, but it could use more work to become a great game.
Roguelikeness
1 - The game features randomly generated content, but it's a real-time puzzle game without too many options. It would be much more roguelike if the virus only spread when you moved, and there were more types of programs to use.
Block the spread of a virus by destroying and rearranging memory in this real-time puzzle game. Overall the game is well-executed, but it doesn't seem quite complete since it fails to clearly communicate the overall goal.
rgb
Completeness
2 - The game is runs, but is somewhat bugged.
2 - Feels mostly complete but a bit rough in the early levels and is not always obvious what is going on. Could use a bit of extra polish.
Aesthetics
1 - Blue dimension seriously hurt my eyes. It is very difficult to see a thing there.
2 - I get the use of the single color to indicate dimension but it can really strain the eyes. Combat was hard to follow, some better indication of me doing damage or my special ability being ready would've come in handy.
Fun
1 - While dimension switching sounds fun on paper, in the actual implementation in this game it isn't fun at all. And the main reason for this is rather doubtful decision to kill player if he tries to bump into what supposed to be wall, but is nothingness in this game. You can easily end up being surrounded by nothingness after dimension switch. In some cases you can walk on it and wait switching cooldown and in other cases you simply die instantly.
2 - It's worth playing for the dimension-shifting mechanic alone.
Innovation
2 - It's a very very weak 2. There are a few games, including 7drls, that have some kind of dimension switching, but in a different way. I wish the result of switching was more predictable.
3 - I love the multi-dimension stuff. Kind of mind-blowing and hard to follow at times but that's to be expected. Nice work!
Scope
2 - More or less ok for a 7drl.
3 - About what I'd expect for a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
3 - It's very simple and shallow, but still roguelike.
3 - It's definitely a roguelike.
There are 3 dungeons in 3 dimensions in this game. Red, green and blue. Monsters from other dimension can block your path, so you have to switch dimensions to make your way to the exit. The most serious problem with this game is ... dimension switching. It's not coupled with the gameplay. It's just a feature on it's own. In most cases you don't really need to switch dimensions. And when you do, you have no idea what's going on in a dimension you are going to switch to.
RGB is a browser roguelike with an interesting multi-dimensional mechanic. Red Green and Blue all operate as separate dimensions of the same dungeon. After the first three levels, where switching is mostly useless and/or instant death, the mechanic becomes very interesting! You can only attach enemies in your same dimension, but you can use other dimensions to escape. The level colors are a bit over-bearing but the dimension switching is cool!
Loot Rogue
Completeness
2 - The game runs fine, no bugs found, but it doesn't feel feature complete.
2 - Fight gradually more difficult enemies in what seems like an endless game. I want to give a 3 here, but there doesn't seem to be an endgame and the difficulty hits a plateau before long so you can just keep fighting forever without much chance of losing. I made it to round 35 before quitting because most every round started to look the same and none of the items were better than what I'd had for the previous 15 rounds. One way to make the game more difficult would be to add monsters that can attack diagonally and at range, like the player can, because once you get a good enough ranged setup you're pretty much unstoppable. It's also missing wands/magic and alternate rings.
2 - Seems fairly polished and bugfree, but the balance is on the easy side, making this a high 2.
Aesthetics
2 - Oryx's tiles look good. But controls could be better. IMO the game in this format could benefit greatly from mouse controls. Especially ranged weapon, which is somewhat cumbersome with keyboard.
2 - Very appealing sprites (Oryx tileset) with two-frame animations even, but the smaller font doesn't look very crisp. The simple control scheme is nice, though when you are at the edge of the map the diagonal aim will still cycle off the map even though you shouldn't be allowed to fire there, so if not careful you may waste a turn (no visual indicator).
2 - All the relevant numbers and commands are displayed onscreen, which makes the game very easy to play. The game looks pretty good, too (although I think there's a tiny amount of weird aliasing or clipping on the font). The UI is good but not perfect. (Free turns remaining could be displayed. The ranged targeting could start on a valid target, if one exists.)
Fun
2 - The game starts fine, but hits the roof very quickly. Dex vs Int choice is not so meaningful since melee attack is vastly superior to ranged, so ranged is not really needed.
3 - This game is a lot of fun. The \"get a random item per round\" mechanic, combined with the short rounds, makes the reward cycle pretty short and kept me playing for a while. There is plenty of depth in the stats, and the types of enemies were interesting. I'd strongly suggest considering a way to show the remaining HP of each enemy--maybe a little number in the corner (maybe only for those that are hurt)--since it's a value that can be calculated/remembered for optimal play, but doing so somewhat reduces the fun. The fun of the game lies in superior tactical positioning, not remembering numbers. The game would also benefit from having some rings/wands to swap out, but the dev said there wasn't enough time. Not really too bad, since the sprint rings are quite useful regardless of your build--probably wouldn't want to swap them out, and certainly keep at least one! Wands on the other hand are completely missing so intelligence isn't important.
2 - Worth playing. The mechanics are well chosen and well executed.
Innovation
1 - Nothing new here.
2 - The concept of fighting waves of monsters in an arena isn't new, but is implemented quite well with the \"get one new item each round\" mechanic.
2 - I gave a 2 for innovation because the mechanics work well together on a plain 7x7 grid. (Item replacement, simple effective stats, diagonal-only ranged attacks, and several free turns per round.)
Scope
2 - It's very weak 2. I would expect monsters with different behaviour for an arena battle game like this.
2 - More types of enemies to fight would have risen this score to 3, otherwise given that the tileset was premade this game is more or less standard 7DRL size. Not a bad thing at all, though; still a great job!
2 - What I expect from a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
2 - Once again it's very weak 2. The game is too shallow, decisions are obvious.
3 - This borders on a puzzle game, but the composition of the enemies you fight is randomized each round, as is each round's reward. Combat is also turn-based. Roguelike enough for me.
3 - Not the strongest 3, but a 3 nonetheless.
This is turn based arena tactics game where you get one new item after each round. It's up to you to keep it or to skip it. Sounds more or less fun, but in practice the game progression quickly diminishes. No new monsters, no new (more powerful) items, the game plays the same from round to round.
Fight endless waves of a few enemies each in this roguelike puzzler. The game looks great with its Oryx fantasy tiles, so that should be enough to draw you in until you're hooked on the mechanics. The combat is bump to attack, though backup ranged weapons can hit along diagonals as far as the edge of the (small) map, so they're quite powerful. (The enemy is *not* stupid though, and will try to stay out of your line of fire.) With such a small map, positioning is very important, though the dev starts you off with two rings that each give you three free actions each round to help escape danger or backstab tough enemies (50% chance of critical). In keeping with the name of the game, you get a new random item each round that you can keep or throw away. Definitely read the intro screen to understand what each stat means--it's pretty straightforward, but knowing the details in advance will make later choices easier. Be sure to pick up the health potions before defeating the last enemy, since your damage carries over to the next round! Also note that enemies of different (or sometimes even the same) types will kill each other to get to you. ***I'm disappointed at the average score I ended up giving this game due to little things here and there, because it's really a lot of fun and an excellent 7DRL worth playing.
Loot Rogue is a minimal tactical game played on a plain 7x7 grid. Each round, enemies appear near the edges, and you use cardinal melee and diagonal ranged attacks to defeat them. You also have 2 rings that activate for 3 free turns, each once per round. If you survive, you find a random item, and can choose to swap it for an item you're already using, or leave it behind. My main criticism is that the game is a bit too easy: Enemies sometimes fail to move, so any single enemy will eventually fall to ranged pokes. Also, there are no monsters stronger than the dragon, and it doesn't take long to be able to defeat everything. I'd like to see a lot more monsters, especially ones with special moves of their own, like ranged attacks or double moves. I had fun playing this one.
Anti-deratization
Completeness
3 - No bugs or crashes, reasonably polished for a 7DRL, has a title screen with art and everything.
2 -
Aesthetics
2 - Aside from the title screen there isn’t much going on visually. Good visual indication of where you’re aiming your shout/resource placement. Easy to distinguish everything.
2 -
Fun
2 - I found it got boring after maybe 15-20 minutes each time I played but it’s not bad for dabbling in. Pretty much just an arena but with a commandable squad of sorts. It’s worth a go.
1 -
Innovation
2 - Mostly not hugely groundbreaking but you don’t see commandable allies very often in roguelikes, and the limited number of Shout commands is a good idea that works reasonably well.
2 -
Scope
2 - Reasonable for a 7DRL.
2 -
Roguelikeness
2 - Definitely has some roguelike features but in many ways is an arena combat game. Procedural layouts but these are largely irrelevant as they don’t really affect play.
3 -
Anti-ratization is basically a series of combat arenas in which you and some AI-controlled allies take on a succession of invading forces. The premise here is that you’re a goblin and you’re orchestrating the defence of the basement lair where you live with goblin and orc buddies against human attempts to clear it out. Initially I mistakenly thought that all I could do was run around, killing enemies myself and hoping that some of them strayed close enough to the milling orcs and goblins to get their attention, but there’s actually a little bit more to it. \ \ A lot of 7DRLs wisely focus on trying to introduce one or two interesting mechanics to an otherwise unremarkable formula, and Anti-deratization takes this approach too. The mechanics here are Shouts and Resources. While movement and basic ‘bump to hit’ combat is controlled with the keyboard, you Shouts and Resources are deployed with the mouse (I found this led to me awkwardly shifting my right hand back and forth between numpad and mouse but it’s not a big problem). The Shouts are the more useful of the two, allowing you to send all your allies to the vicinity where you left-clicked. The key feature that stops this being mundane is that you have only ten Shouts per level, so you have to avoid being careless with them. If you run out, you have to rely on your own attacks alone, or try to bait enemies towards your allies. It’s not an earth-shattering innovation but it is something we don’t often see in roguelikes, and the limited uses are a good idea. \ \ The other mechanic is Resources, which is basically a (similarly limited) collection of blocks you can throw down by right clicking. It’s not clear what they’re meant to be, though each one seems to be represented by a randomly chosen symbol. I’m not a huge fan of this mechanic here, because it doesn’t do much. Some of these blocks seem to do nothing (I was able to repeatedly walk over one type, and one type only) and when they work they have limited applications. The levels are generally pretty open, so being able to place eight single blocks doesn’t achieve much. I thought about trying to build an enclosure, put my allies inside and wait for enemies to find them, but enemies just mill around aimlessly until they have you in sight, so it could have taken all day. If you’re fleeing and want to block off one of the occasional narrow passages behind you, that works. If you’re taking a lot of projectile fire and want to throw down a barricade, that works (until the enemy sidesteps and shoots round it). For the most part, though, the Resource mechanic doesn’t achieve much and I feel the game would have been much the same without it. \ \ Solid enough presentation - standard libtcod visual style but with an actual graphical title screen, colour scheme makes it easy to distinguish friend from foe, and distinguish everything from the background, though the levels are pretty bare. It’s also always very clear where you’re aiming with the mouse. No bugs or crashes that I noticed, so it all runs pretty well. It’s not a bad game at all but it does get repetitive - clear out all the invaders, the layout re-randomises, then do the same again with increased difficulty. Personally, whenever my goblin eventually died it was usually because I was losing interest and getting sloppy. The Shout mechanic has promise and could be expanded on in interesting ways but Resources are redundant. Worth a try, and some might find longer-lasting enjoyment in it than I did.
A fairly simple roguelike with an interesting \"shout to order minions to a location\" mechanic. You're a goblin in command of a bunch of monsters, and you have to defend your village from the \"deratization\" (aka pest control) squad. You can't take them all on yourself, though, which is where the minions come in. You click the map to order them to go to a location and fight whatever's nearby. You can also right-click to place an obstacle. Each of these actions can be performed a limited number of times per level.\ \ It's an interesting concept, but unfortunately the gameplay is a bit bland. There aren't any items or spells to use, so it's just running around fighting stuff, ordering your minions, and placing obstacles. There are a number of minor bugs, but one major one I encountered (unless I just missed something obvious) is that sometimes a level will be generated with enemies that are out of reach - perhaps inside a sealed building? It also takes a bit of experimentation to figure out which colors of creatures are enemies and which are allies.
Creek Hero
Completeness
2 - The game works fine, but couple of times I've got sudden game over while visually I wasn't inside of the other fish.
3 -
Aesthetics
2 - Letters of different sizes with bounding box and direction pointer. Looks more or less ok, but colors could be a little less saturated and fishy. It's underwater after all.
3 -
Fun
1 - Very repetitive and boring.
3 -
Innovation
1 - Nothing new.
3 -
Scope
1 - Just a tiny bit more then @ moving on the screen.
2 -
Roguelikeness
1 - There is barely any game here. Surely not enough to be called roguelike.
3 -
Eat the fish of the same size as you or smaller and grow. Nothing more.
Wow, I'm impressed by this game. Peaceful *animated* water background with a variety of fish (of different sizes, represented by different size ASCII symbols), with indicators showing their direction of travel! Oh, and blood splatters! Gotta love blood splatters! Eat fish that are the same size as you or smaller to gain XP; get eaten by bigger fish and it's game over. Gain enough XP and you level up, becoming a bigger fish yourself. But you don't actually get any bigger onscreen - the enemy fish just get smaller! Epic Perspective Shift!\ \ And then the truly ginormous fish appear. You thought dodging fish twice your size was bad? Try dodging fish three or four times your size! And I could swear I saw an enemy fish actually level up itself by eating another enemy fish! The game feels almost newtonian, what with the enemy fish traveling on constant courses until they collide with another fish.\ \ My only complaint is that I can't easily tell the speed of enemy fish. Some of them seem to move slower than others, and it would be nice if I could see which those were without trailing them for a while trying to catch them. Maybe it has something to do with the various colors or ASCII symbols, but I can't tell.
the deadly four
Completeness
3 - There isn’t much to it but I didn’t encounter any bugs and it doesn’t feel like it’s missing anything that was intended to be there.
2 - Seems complete! Short, but to the point. (of MY KATANA... get it?)
2 - Sometimes generates unconnected levels. F key still bound to Fullscreen.
Aesthetics
3 - The visuals are quite pretty for a non-graphical game, and it makes effective use of limited assets. Nice use of colour. UI very simple and clear.
3 - Looks absolutely great. Appears to be created in SDL from scratch, so it does not have the standard libtcod or console feel to it, which is a good thing.
2 - Nice colors and symbols. UI is clean, with a little room for improvement. I like the way the terrain fades to monochrome when you're defeated.
Fun
2 - Worth a go, at least until you beat it - which won’t take long.
2 - It's fun! The gameplay is not too varied, but there is some strategic item usage and the combat can get somewhat tactical with the rest function and the various abilities you choose at the begining.
2 - I like the theme, and the mantras.
Innovation
1 - The reviewing guideline for awarding a score of 1 in this category, “hack, slash, whatever”, suits this perfectly. Bump some @ symbols and letters until there aren’t any left.
2 - Nothing super new here, innovation-wise, except maybe the theme.
1 - Passive effects, grabbing new weapons from the ground, resting between (or during) fights. It's more involved than simply bumping into the enemy, but there aren't really any surprises here.
Scope
1 - This is where the game really falls down. Your mission to bump four @ symbols until they die. That’s it. Very limited, very basic. AI is nonexistent, skills are all passive so there are no tactics involved… There just isn’t much there.
2 - About what I'd expect for a 7drl. Doesn't reach for too much but does everything very well.
2 - What I'd expect from a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
1 - Aside from ASCII-like graphics (I don’t know the technical term for this visual style) and procedural layout of the very limited arena space you’re fighting in, there’s basically no roguelike here.
3 - Definitely a roguelike. I died a lot.
3 - Definitely.
The Deadly Four is structurally reminiscent of a Zelda-themed entry from a previous year - the awkwardly named I Rule, You Rule, We All Rule Old School Hyrule. A smallish single-screen level which is basically a static arena, monsters and player-like foes wandering around, and an ability selectable at the start. I don’t think there’s any connection, but the resemblance struck me right from the opening moments. Unfortunately, The Deadly Four is distinctly less ambitious than its Zelda-based counterpart. \ \ The game is very simple, which isn’t inherently a bad thing. You’re just some person armed with nothing more than a stick, setting off to take down the four most dangerous warriors in the land. Fortunately the land is very small, the warriors are very stupid, and someone has left swords lying around everywhere. The deadly four themselves are represented by orange @ symbols, while various letters wandering around represent bandits, pandas and other aimlessly roaming things for you to kill. The premise is reasonably promising - a short series of tense encounters with tough opponents, forcing you to concentrate and use everything you can think of to gain a slight advantage. \ \ That’s not how it works though. In practice, the deadly are deadly poor fighters. They hit hard, so you have to keep an eye on your health meter, but you can easily retreat and rest up to get your health back. Your enemies either don’t regain health with time, or do so much more slowly than you do, which means each battle is actually just a hit-and-run guerrilla offensive - pop up, smack your opponent a few times, duck back to safety, repeat. As long as you remember to pick up one of the weapons strewn around as a replacement for your starting stick, you should be ok. You probably won’t even need the healing sushi items which are likewise lying around all over the level. They’re less effective than just pulling back a couple of steps. Hell, I found that *resting in the middle of combat* provided more effective healing than eating sushi. \ \ This might seem like a cheesy approach but it’s genuinely the only way to beat these opponents. With no armour, no character levels to increase your combat strength, and woefully useless healing items, there’s no way you could beat these opponents without cheesing them. When you do cheese them, they’re pretty easy. When I realised I could just back off and rest without my enemy doing the same, it only took a couple more attempts to beat the game. Kind of. \ \ There isn’t really an end to the game. When you beat the four themselves, the game congratulates you but says the battle isn’t over. I assumed this was because I’d left some bandits alive, so I trekked round and cleaned them up. With nothing still living in the world except me...nothing. A simple “game over, quit?” or something would have worked, but no. It feels like the game can’t be bothered to notice whether you’ve won. It occurred to me that this might play out differently if you kill all the other enemies before finishing off the deadly four but I can’t muster the enthusiasm to go through it again. \ \ The Deadly Four isn’t bad, for all my moaning. It’s mildly fun for a little while, at least until you beat it once. Having done that, there’s no reason to return. Once you know you have to cheese your opponents, you’ll probably be done with it in a few minutes, but it’s not bad while it lasts. It is, however, disappointing. Taking on four foes who are substantially stronger than you in one-to-one duels should be tense and exciting but it just isn’t. The skills you choose from at the beginning present an illusion of varied playstyles but the skills are all passive and make so little difference to the experience that they might as well not be there at all. \ \ The Deadly Four is worth the 20 minutes or so it’ll take you to beat it, and you won’t kick yourself for doing so, but you will sigh and think “this could have been much more”.
Deadly Four is an original roguelike with a great interface and design, set in japan. You are a samuri tasked with kill the four \"deadly ones\". The game itself is short. It's basically one level with 4 boss monsters on it. Please don't mistake the pandas for bad guys and accidentally kill them. :( The colors are nice and the game appears to be created in SDL from scratch, so it does not have the standard libtcod or console feel to it.
the deadly four is a samurai-themed game that takes place on a single screen. The goal is to defeat the four boss enemies that wander around. You pick one of several mantras to begin the game, which grants a passive effect. There are weapons and healing food to pick up, and other enemies to defeat. There's not a lot to do besides this, but experimenting with the different mantras was still fun for a little while, and the game looks nice.
Coffin Crooks
Completeness
2 -
2 - Mostly seems complete, and has a high degree of visual polish. Some minor bugs encountered however, mainly to do with grid movement.
2 - What's there feels somewhat complete, but there are too many bugs.\ \ The most prominent bug is the WASD exploit. I'm guessing this was either a leftover debug mode or key bindings that weren't handled correctly. The standard movement requires arrows, but WASD moves your character with the following behavior: you don't turn as normal, enemies don't move when you do, and you can pass through walls. Switching back to arrow movement once outside of the level boundary crashes the game.\ \ Occasionally, your run will be cut short because no down staircases are generated.\ \ You can select enemies off screen.\ \ Hopefully, you won't have any trouble starting the game, but I did. Even when I finally did get it running, on one computer it ran extremely slow (a whole second to process each key press). I'm wiling to say that was a problem with my python/pygame installs, but keep that in mind.
Aesthetics
2 -
3 - Very attractive JRPG-style graphics. The context-menu control style makes it easy to figure out the controls, although some hotkeys for performing specific actions might speed things up a bit. Moving the fireball cursor could also be sped up a bit.
2 - For this game, I wish I could separate Aesthetics into two categories: visuals and controls. Visuals would get a 3 and controls a 1.\ \ The background tiles are very simple but they work. I'm not sure what the black patches are supposed to be... darkness, fog, pits? Anyway, they sometimes give the impression of being passable when they are in fact not. The characters on the other hand look quite nice (the main character's crab hands looks a bit odd though). A visual nitpick: the level description text is behind enemy sprites. The music is a nice touch, but gets a tad repetitive.\ \ I'm afraid I don't like the controls at all. With a gamepad, it might work a lot better, but using a keyboard is a pain. There are no bump attacks, only a single ranged fireball attack. Attacking an enemy once requires 3 button presses and that doesn't even include as many as 17 key presses to move the target into place (you can attack any enemy on screen.... you can actually attack any enemy off screen for that matter). So killing a single enemy who takes 3 hits can take up 60 key presses in the worst case. That's.... ridiculous. Actions like picking up gold from a tombstone should require zero key presses, but instead require 3 because every action is directed through the same menu.
Fun
2 -
2 - Pretty fun for a while, although the gameplay is fairly simple and lacking in variety, so it gets a bit dull. Could do with different spells to use and more variety in enemies beyond their hitpoints.
1 - I feel bad about this, but I didn't have much fun. Your mileage may vary. I didn't see any strategy in the game. Enemy have a very short range when attacking, so you are perfectly safe as long as you attack them from afar. There is only spell and you are limited only by MP which is replenished when descending a staircase. Bump attacks might seem boring, but I believe people enjoy the simplicity and quickness of bump attacks.\ \ Collecting gold could work nicely for keeping score, but in the current iteration it doesn't do much. Picking up gold is a hassle (3 key presses) and the game desperately needs a scoreboard.
Innovation
1 -
1 - Nothing here I haven't seen before.
1 - I don't see any.
Scope
2 -
2 - A low 2. While everything is nicely done, there is not a whole lot of actual content here.
2 - Only one spell and three monster types that appear to behave similarly. There is enough of a foundation to deserve a 2 though.
Roguelikeness
3 -
3 - Lacking a few basic features which I think it could benefit from (bump combat, inventory etc.), but I think it passes the test.
3 - It's pretty roguelike. Missing items, discovery, and complexity, but I'll let that slide. It does have procedural dungeon exploration, leveling up, spells, monsters, and is grid/turn based.
I did a video where I play and review of it Here:\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpIDv6bDv44\ If you don't want to watch the whole thing then the link below will bring you directly to the part where I go and actually review it:\ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpIDv6bDv44&t=54m33s\ And if you really don't want to watch the video here is a good approximation of what I say:\ \ Completeness\ I give this a 2. The game is feature complete but I was able to find a number of bugs in my hour of play of which the wasd key problem was the greatest followed by not having the down stairs spawn on my last run\ \ Aesthetics\ This I will also be giving a 2. It had music though it got a little repetive at the end so neither here nor there with that. The tiles all looked great though the completely black walls while natural cave looking could have used some color. The game controlled how I expected it for the most part though sometimes the aiming felt sluggish and the fact that the cursor could go off screen was annoying. Also a niggling problem was that while it seemed to be context sensitive it could have done it better, if there isn't an enemy on screen I don't need to shoot fire and if the grave was already looted I don't need the option to loot it anymore\ \ Fun\ Following the pattern this is another score of 2. I enjoyed it and if you already have python and pygames in go play it. To really stand out it could have used a score board as otherwise gold means nothing but once I stopped collecting it the game was actually funner to play. While you may only have one attack and its the same one the enemies have the game is tactical in a good way.\ \ Innovative\ Going with a 1 for this. While the game is completely ranged its the same attack, there are 3 enemy types but they all have your attack as well and the only real difference I could notice was HP and XP. The most interesting part was that you can shoot through walls and while interesting its not innovative.\ \ Scale\ Weighing in at a score of 2 it works just fine. This game fits perfectly into what I think a normal person can complete in 7 days. Combined with a person to do art for it I think while it might not have gotten to the stars it reached a nice stable orbit.\ \ Roguelikeishness\ 3. This is a Roguelike to its core, while it suffered in Innovative because of it somewhat I don't think its a bad thing and it does what it means to so it works.\ \ Wrap up\ I enjoyed it. It was a good hour that I spent and as long as the game is worth the hour I see no reason not to play it.
Coffin Crooks is a game wherein you and your trusty fireball spell go tomb raiding, hunting for treasure in coffins dotted through the levels and battling their former occupants. The fire spell is the only weapon available and is limited by mana which only appears to recharge between levels - this means that you need to choose carefully which enemies to attack and which to fight. What is here is fairly solid and could form a good base for a more complex game. However, the lack of other combat options and the way that most enemies appear only to differ by their number of hit-points and wander around randomly, means that the game itself feels just as bare-bones as some of the monsters you fight.
A very simplistic dungeon crawler about killing enemies with a fireball attack and looting graves for gold. There are the foundations of a good game here: random levels, wandering enemies that can attack you, collecting gold, leveling up. However, the game suffers from some pretty major bugs and I can't say I found it very fun.\ \ The developers mentioned they were on crunch due to another jam. I'll take their word on that. Based on what I'm seeing, they certainly have the skills to make a great game, but it's going to require a bit more effort. With some more work (especially depth in gameplay mechanics), this could be worth coming back to.
Crime Central
Completeness
2 - * Wasn't sure if there was a way to get back bullhorns.\ * Background music was positioned in 3D instead of attached to the character.\ * Not certain if this is winnable; balance of number of mobs seems a bit high.\ * Variety of mobs.\
2 - Polished and initially seems complete but play reveals that it needs a lot of rebalancing and perhaps redesigning.
2 - On my first encounter with the final boss, she spun around so fast that I couldn't read her text. Once she stopped, I didn't understand it anyway. There aren't many bugs, but the game mechanics simply aren't explained well enough. The enemy pathfinding AI was really unrealistic and would be more fun if enemies surrounded you.
Aesthetics
2 - * Controls a bit confusing at first (The Law actually being help and not the \"take a hit, then bullhorn & kill\" law).\ * A bit easier to use the minimap & play than focus on the main screen.\ * Enjoyed the music other than its positioning.\ * Nice colors & sprite design.\ * Enjoyed the death animation.\ * Nice title screen.
2 - Pixel art is good, UI is generally easy to read and use although having Z as the ‘shoot’ key when WASD is movement feels awkward at first and it takes some time to work out what the icons are and how they relate to your actions.
3 - The Wolfensteinesque, pixelly graphics look amazing, though the dev said the tileset was borrowed. The techno ditty that is played was cool and I swear there was a directionality to it; turn one way and you'd only hear it through one ear. The controls, though poorly documented, work fine.
Fun
2 - * Good example of turn-based 3D movement.\
1 - I was on the fence about going for 1 or 2 on this one. As far as I’ve been able to work out, the game is fundamentally not playable for very long because of the way it’s designed, which makes it frustrating. It’s reasonably fun for a couple of minutes but then repetition and frustration bog it down.
2 - I've complained a lot about the mechanics, but even so they can be kind of fun once you figure them out.
Innovation
1 - * Shoot & arrest.
2 - A twist on the first person dungeon crawl.
2 - The replenishment mechanic is neat. The sprinting action is brilliant, though it wasn't practical enough for me to use when I was trying to beat the game. You could build a whole game around sprinting.
Scope
2 - * The 3D perspective & aesthetics seemed the most ambitious part of the project.
2 - Looks ambitious at first but lacks depth as far as I can tell. Moderate for a 7DRL.
2 - Three enemy types and they are only marginally different from each other. Several floors and a boss. Average for a 7drl.
Roguelikeness
2 - * Mainly randomized maps and mob placements while being hard. \ * Certainly a good base for future roguelike development.
2 - Part roguelike, part not.
3 - It's very puzzly, but there is a lot of resource management. No items though and the combat is not super complex. There is a form of tactical positioning, but it always feels the same. A low 3.
Overall seemed to suffer from some balance issues since gaining ammo and health depending on bullhorns…and I couldn't find a way to recover bullhorns. Aesthetics, particularly the titlescreen, sprites, music, and death animation, were the best parts of playing. A very challenging turn-based shooter.
Reviewing Crime Central took a while, not because it’s complex or deep but because I wanted to do my best to understand what was going on before sitting down to write the review. I’m still not 100% sure if I’ve understood it correctly but after several hours I don’t think I’m getting anywhere. \ \ The premise is that you’re a Judge Dredd-like enforcer, roaming in a turn-based first-person environment using WASD, and taking down legions of criminals. As far as I’ve got I’ve only seen one type of criminal and the main thing they do is keep pace with you, so there doesn’t seem to be much variety in these nefarious hordes. You have two resources with which to take down your foes - bullets and bullhorns. Shooting an enemy is straightforward (though performed with Z, which is pretty awkward) and one hit will lay them out. The problem is that you only have six bullets, and usually significantly more targets than that. The game informs you that you can regain ammunition by shooting enemies who have surrendered, which is where bullhorns come in...and this is where it becomes fiddly to explain. \ \ You start with two bullhorns, and when you use one it causes nearby enemies to drop to their knees in surrender. If you shoot an enemy while he’s on his knees you sometimes regain bullets back up to your maximum of six - ‘sometimes’ being the important word here. More on that later. The other thing you can do with a surrendering enemy is arrest him, and this restores some of your lost health, if any. Bullhorns are absolutely essential to dealing with the multitude of enemies in each level, but the big problem is how you earn more bullhorns. You see, two horns won’t last very long. If you use one and then move, everyone who kneeled in surrender will be back up on their feet and fighting again once you’ve moved. If you shoot, you can usually get off two shots before everyone leaps back to their feet. In order to get a new bullhorn for future use, you have to kill three enemies (arresting them doesn’t seem to count towards new bullhorns) but each kill uses a bullet. This isn’t an issue if one of the bullhorned kills restores your ammo, but they don’t always. You’re at the mercy of the RNG. This means the game becomes a matter of trying to balance out bullet use and bullet regain through careful use of the bullhorns. It’s actually not a bad mechanic but it’s just not very fun here, and this is for two reasons - firstly the RNG, and secondly movement. \ \ As I said, sometimes the RNG dictates that you won’t get a bullet refill. The game makes you balance your shots against your bullhorns as precisely as possible for maximum efficacy, and then betrays you by not giving you a refill, at which point the game is basically over. Movement, though, is perhaps a bigger problem. I said earlier that the main thing the enemies do is keep pace with you, and that’s the main issue with the movement. Considering how much the game centres around manoeuvring into an advantageous position from which you can shoot the right number of enemies, it’s surprisingly often impossible to do so. If an enemy is a space or two away from you, it will often just mirror you, moving from side to side to block you if you try to manoeuvre around it. This is the other reason that the game is basically over once you run out of bullets. The aim seems to be to get to each level’s exit rather than to eliminate all the enemies, but doing so can be a huge ordeal, and without bullets it’s often completely impossible. Even with bullets I failed to do this more often than not. I don’t think I ever got beyond level 4 and usually not beyond level 2 or even level 1. \ \ This is the game’s downfall. If it’s going to demand precise use of your tools and mathematical conservation of resources, then it needs manoeuvrability to make that possible. Alternatively, if it’s going to lumber you with inability to manoeuvre, then it needs to be more forgiving in the bullet/bullhorn balance. Sadly, Crime Central does neither and as such ends up wasting a promising mechanic on a game that is too frustrating to be any fun. It’s worth a brief visit to witness the potential for a good mechanic but otherwise leave it alone.
In Crime Central, you're sent to Penal Colony ND-143X to quell an inmate uprising. You have a few abilities: shooting, arresting, and sprinting. The challenge is that resources are extremely tight and there are no refills. Replenishing your supplies requires specific sequences of actions.\ \ This is actually a great idea on paper and sometimes it feels like a fun puzzle. Unfortunately, the mechanics are really confusing. For example, ammo can be restocked only by doing the following in order 1) letting an enemy hit you, 2) using a bullhorn, and 3) shooting that enemy. Another reviewer came to the erroneous conclusion that the bullet refill was determined randomly (probably because the first step is never explained properly).\ \ Furthermore, there's pretty much a single optimal strategy with little room for error or experimentation. I'm going to explain the strategy, so consider this your ***SPOILER WARNING***:\ \ 1) Start by switching to your shotgun with E. This feature is completely undocumented, but is necessary to properly handle Enforcers, which take two revolver hits. Both guns use up the same ammo, even though they have different ammo icons. This is quite weird.\ 2) Shoot 5 enemies.\ 3) Get hit, bullhorn, arrest. After doing Steps 2-3, you will be back where you started with max ammo, -1 HP, and +1 bullhorn.\ 4) Repeat Steps 2-3 until you are nearly out of health.\ 5) Use the 3 bullhorns to arrest 3 enemies. You will now have full health and probably just as many bullhorns as you started with.\ \ Using this strategy, I did beat the game, but only after 60 attempts.\ \ See, the extremely frustrating thing is you never get out of this cycle. You never get better. You never stockpile resources. If you divert from this strategy even slightly, you lose. Use your last bullet WITHOUT restocking? You're out of ammo forever. Use your last bullhorn with fewer than 4 bullets. You're screwed. You would think arresting multiple enemies using 1 bullhorn would be a good strategy, but the enemy AI never surrounds you...\ \ I guess the reason I wrote all this up is because I think the system has a lot of promise but is currently way too constrained to be much fun. The music, sound, and graphics are all solid; with some changes to the mechanics, the game could be really great.
FarmingRL
Completeness
2 - There's a good variety of enemies, although you don't get to pick your battles since they all come at you in realtime, so the progression feels quite linear. It's built on top of rot.js so the engine itself is tried and tested. Level design is interesting and varied. However, some of the text content feels rushed and excessively minimal, the keyboard controls aren't as good as they could be (see Aesthetics).
Aesthetics
2 - Clean and plain black-on-white text roguelike, with quite a subtle line of sight reveal mechanism that gently fades out-of-sight areas to an unobtrusive grey without making them hard to see. The controls are unfortunately quite unintuitive - WASD is fine, but there are times you need to move diagonally (such as to leave the first room alive, which is non-obvious) and then the HJKL controls are needed; diagonals are YUBN which are not mentioned in the startup help text, and are absolutely necessary for any meaningful progression. English is clearly not the developer's first language, and with that in mind the patchy text can be easily forgiven, but irregular capitalisation makes it feel less polished. No apparent way to restart on death aside from refreshing the browser is slightly annoying.
Fun
2 - Running around a fast-paced hack-n-slash is always entertaining, but that gives way quickly to frustration if it's impossible to leave the first room. The game mechanic is a series of rooms with numbered bosses, each of which stays still and spawns smaller minions one by one that attack you. The minions are easy, the bosses are hard. In this case, it seems that to defeat the first room's exit boss you have to either side-step around him using undocumented keys, or wait until he's sent enough enemies at you that you've levelled up enough to take him on. Unfortunately, after the third game restart, this becomes quite a chore, and by the time you've done this twenty times it's fairly frustrating. There seems to be no real way to accelerate your progress, and a roguelike really shouldn't be about waiting in realtime for new enemies to spawn. It's possible to progress a great deal just by leaving your browser running and letting the smaller monsters dash themselves hopelessly against you, but even this strategy only works so far - I gave up after levelling up to level 12 by this technique (around half an hour's play) only to be one-shotted by an invincible kobold i couldn't run away from in the last room. Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/lnb9lGb.png The frustration keeps you coming back for a while, but doesn't substitute for genuinely fun game mechanics for long.
Innovation
1 - The numbered room boss dynamic is relatively original, but the gameplay doesn't deviate from the formula enough to call it innovation. There wasn't really anything in this game that surprised me; that's not to say it didn't perform well within its formula, but innovation is not its greatest strength.
Scope
2 - The level design feels pretty detailed, there are enough enemies and inventory items to keep you interested (although, like Progress Quest, it feels like you're getting new items in a fixed order that doesn't really affect how you play the game). I feel that had there been more to explore rather than relying on grind mechanics to keep the play time high, this game would have scored higher.
Roguelikeness
3 - I went into the game expecting a gimmicky farming game mechanic, and was surprised to see that it's a straightforward hack-n-slash where you smash beetles and centaurs... not sure what the farming connection is, to be honest, but it's very solidly roguelike in the traditional sense, except for the fact it runs in real time without waiting for user input.
The game is available online and also has its source on GitHub, which is a sure way to make a favourable first impression with me. It runs in browser and is accessible with minimum reading - you just walk around and whack things. First thing I noticed was that gameplay continues even when you don't move, making this more of a realtime experience than traditional turn-based roguelikes. However, some fundamental gameplay issues make this a pretty limited experience in its current guise; I hope Koji Horaguchi will keep working on this and improve it, as it could still become a genuinely interesting game. For a first attempt, it's certainly not bad.
FlappyRL
Completeness
2 - Reasonably polished, but very balanced (it's too easy by far) and there's is no way to restart beyond reloading the browser screen.
Aesthetics
3 - Pretty ASCII, though a little on the boring side. Very streamlined controls!
Fun
2 - Worth a minute in the browser, but it won't keep you hooked.
Innovation
2 - Nice playing with gravity effects and very cut down input.
Scope
1 - Extremely simple game. Can't help but feel the basic mechanics could have been expanded more to make the game more interesting.
Roguelikeness
2 - Some simple roguelike elements in force, and it does have the whole \"planning your moves ahead\" feel.
A roguelike based on Flappy Bird! This is a very simple game with only two controls - move forwards or flap forwards. Moving forwards subjects you to gravity, flapping forwards move you up and across one tile. A nice feature is that gravity accelerates your drop each turn if you keep pressing across. Overall very simple though, and beyond the initial charm and amusement there's not much to keep one playing.
Good Game
Completeness
3 - This is remarkably complete. My big objection is the use of an external manual. While I think the manual.txt should be renamed spoiler.txt, it should still be accessible in game. My suggestion would be a short splash screen that says something like:\ \ Good Game\ For spoilers, hit ?\ \ and bring up a progressive series of spoilers with the ? key:\ Level 1: key bindings\ Level 2: What you are\ Level 3: What enemies do\ Level 4: What are potions\ Level 5: what the a/b means for potions\ Level 6: what the potion effects are\
2 - The game is complete and playable. The instructions are very brief. It takes a while to realize that the player is a number 9 that will slowly reduce point until when you reach 0 the game is over.
Aesthetics
2 - I started off wanting to rate this 1.\ \ Controls are impenetrable. No way to determine who you are, or what is happening, without reading the manual.\ Colours are garish.\ \ But then I wanted to rate it 3. Too many games spoon feed us, making us forget half of a good game is a bad interface. It should be liberating to truly enter the lost world of a newbie entering a new gametype, building up a world-view from scratch. The manual should instead be labelled a \"cheat sheet\" or \"spoilers\" and the game presented as a work-onto-itself. With this view, the garish colours are an excellent asset - they refuse to fit within your standard expectations, forcing you to start looking for ways to re-interpret the gameplay.\ \ Subtle details like the high-score ticker all fit within this highly functional, abstract, and newbie-unforgiving atmosphere.\ \ But then the developer seems to not have embraced this fully: there is a manual! It is called \"manual.txt\".\ \ The manual should read:\ \ \"If you prove intellectually incapable of deducing the game mechanics from first principles, read spoilers.txt\"\ \ Then the spoilers.txt could have what is in the manual!\ \ I regret reading the manual. I always try playing first, and go to it, then play again. But I did not give it enough time in my first attempts, and thus went on a rant about how \"you\" are hard to figure out due to it changing. I would have appreciated the manual instead stopping me, encouraging me to open my eyes and try again. And I would then confidently give it a 3.
1 - The gaming area is colour ASCII characters. Easy to read but not animated in any way.
Fun
3 - There are two layers to this game to savour. First is figuring out and decoding the mechanics from the interface. And the second is actually playing it. I had great joy with both, and keep coming back to better think on the second.
1 - If you like brain teasers this may be ok for a while. This game is much about surviving. The character does not evolve or grow. The gameplay is a bit repetitive from one level to the next.
Innovation
3 - I've seen the two stage enemy health before, and I do recall letter as health, but not sure of number. Most likely because it is hard to understand as an outsider. Beyond this, the enemy behaviour is nicely abstract and interesting, making for satisfying game play.
2 - The point here is to develop a game where you use consumables for solving puzzles. This is kind of new innovation compared to just power ups and armour.
Scope
2 - Scope is kept short and in-hand, perfect for a 7drl.
1 - This game is not too ambitious. The most time is spent on the idea of consumables and play mechanics.
Roguelikeness
3 - Captures the traditional \"Are you playing a game or debugging code?\" heritage of roguelikes. Gameplay wise, properly has perma consequences, tactical combat, randomization, and a lack of fairness that stops it from being a puzzle.
1 - Not rogue-like at all imho.
This crypto-puzzler provides equal fun in deciphering the screen as it does in the actual gameplay. And I mean this as a compliment!\ \ Try to play it without reading the manual!
A strategic puzzle game. The goal is to reach the exit '>' for every level. There is 4 kind of baddies chasing you. You can pick up all kind of power-ups. Some heal you, some damage the baddies and some just may save you by chance.\ Perhaps a rogue-like is not the right term for a brain teaser like this.
HvZ
Completeness
2 - The game runs fine, but there are some bugs here and there. Zombie might stop moving after being hit with a dart, preventing you from picking up the dart. Message log is a mess. When you stand on a dart, the dart is being displayed instead of player.
2 - It seems that all heavy lifting is done by the libtcode library. The menu is sluggish. \ The game is not really balanced. Although you can adjust the difficulty of the map in the beginning,\ this decision seems to be questionable, the balancing job should be done by the game designer.
2 - The game works, for the most part. There are a few bugs, but they're fairly minor. For instance, the \"instalook\" commands using the numpad don't work (you have to rotate your view 45 degrees at a time), and the controls seem unresponsive, as if the game were polling the keyboard periodically, instead of relying on key press events.
Aesthetics
2 - The game looks like fine. Controls are a little cumbersome, but I guess there is no other way to implement running as it is implemented.
2 - Does not look bad, but the controls are unnecesarily complex. \ Aiming (with \"[\" and \"]\") takes time, I wish it was quicker if not instantaneous
1 - The controls are rather awkward, and the onscreen status indicators are mostly just single letters - you have to read the manual to figure anything out!
Fun
2 - It's worth to try. Playing with high number of zombies might be somewhat exhausting, but luckily difficulty can be fine tunes on start.
1 - Repetitive and tedious.
2 - Not everyone will enjoy it, due to the difficulty, but hardcore simulationists will probably get a lot of bang for their buck.
Innovation
2 - Running mechanic and detailed ammo management are interesting features.
1 - The complex gun mechanic seems to be the novelty, but it is not very entertaining.
3 - The \"run mode\" is an interesting innovation, though it is awkward to control. And the level of detail is not commonly found in roguelikes.
Scope
2 - The game is somewhat lacking content, but making playable adaptation of a real life game with interesting mechanics quite a feat for a 7 days.
1 - The game attempted to introduce different weapons and different bullets,\ but only one gun is implemented, and the types of bullets don't look very different.
2 - Seems like a reasonable sized project for a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
3 - It's basic, but roguelike. There is a lot of tactics involved. To run or to shoot is non-trivial question in this game.
3 - Roguelike, but probably, too straightforward.
3 - Definitely a roguelike - it's got the bare minimum (procedural content and serious consequences for death), but then it's also ASCII and turn-based as well.
This game is based on real life sport/tag game Humans vs Zombies. You need to visit classes in time while avoiding being tagged by zombie. You have 'stunning' darts. Zombie hit with a dart can't tag you till next class.
The game is about going to classes and killing \"zombies\". It simulates the real life game of the same name, \ where \"zombie\" players try to tag \"human\" players, and the \"humans\" defend themselves with Nerf(tm) guns.\ \ To start a game, you have to \ select the map properties, and make a new character distributing a bunch of points.\ It seems that the gun shooting mechanic is the core of the game, and it is quite involved.\ In general, dispatching zombies is not very hard, especially if there is not a lot of them around.\ But to fire the gun, you have to: cock the gun -> shoot -> reload. This is quite tedious, since the procedure\ has to be repeated many times.\ Although, you have the freedom to decide when to do the reloading step, \ this seems to be the only tactical decision you are making.
HvZ, or Humans vs. Zombies, does not contain any actual zombies, surprisingly enough. Instead, it's a roguelike simulation of the school campus game of the same name, in which players designated \"zombies\" try to tag players designated \"humans\" (though in this game there is only one human, namely you), while the humans defend themselves with Nerf guns which \"stun\" the zombies.\ \ The goal of the game is to make it to all your classes on time and safely. You lose if you are tagged by a zombie, or you are late to a class. This sounds simple, but the controls make it surprisingly challenging. Some players may enjoy the challenge; others may find it frustrating. In addition to the normal \"move with the arrow keys\" controls, you can enter \"run mode\
KRAXLN
Completeness
3 -
3 - The game seems complete and bugfree.
Aesthetics
2 -
2 - The game has nice graphics and simple controls. But whole exhaustion system needs some explanation and the fact that you have to wait significant amount of real time once you are exhausted is somewhat irritating.
Fun
2 -
2 - It's probably worth to win it once or twice. But winning strategy is rather simple, so there is no much replay value there.
Innovation
2 -
1 - There are not many roguelikes about climbing. But climbing in this game do not create unique gameplay elements. There are no mechanics that use gravity. The game could be topdown with the same gameplay.
Scope
2 -
2 - More or less ok for a 7drl. On the lower side of 2.
Roguelikeness
2 -
1 - It's not deep enough to be called roguelike.
* Looks like a small bug when trying to move while already moving. Ran well otherwise.\ * Cohesive aesthetics + instructions made it easy to understand and play. \ * Numbers are clear but detract from the aesthetics. Maybe a time compromise? \ * Reach the end; game didn't overstay its welcome. \ * Movement costs made positioning matter and worked well.\ * Small, doable scope.\ * Felt very much like a board game with little improvisation.
You need to climb the mountain while trying to avoid or throw down goats. Every tile has movement cost (or may be complexity?) that affects your exhaustion. You can manually rest only on tiles with cost 0. If you become exhausted on different tile, you will skip several turns. During this time the goat can move next to you and throw you down. The only way to prevent this is to use safety hook, which can be picked. Overall the game is too shallow.
Mysterious Space
Completeness
3 - Go through a series of progressively difficult missions to reach the end. Well executed.
Aesthetics
2 - Enemies and bullets are easy to distinguish, though the blaster sound eventually got annoying. Controls are smooth, if not ideal for keyboard play.
Fun
2 - More of a shmup than a roguelike, but if you enjoy shmups this one is worth trying.
Innovation
2 - Procedural generation applied to a shmup.
Scope
2 - Standard 7DRL material.
Roguelikeness
1 - Not turn-based, and the pace picks up really quickly once the screen is cluttered by bullets. Requires fast reflexes; but little in the way of strategy.
Side-scrolling shmup with some roguelike elements. You acquire parts like new weapons, shields, and consumables that can be equipped/used in between missions. The color and \"history\" of your ship are procedurally generated, as are enemy groups and the background terrain, though the latter has no bearing on gameplay. It can be played via keyboard, but ideally you'll want to use a controller for more precise movement (it's pretty necessary on later levels where you have to contend with bullet hell).
Northbound
Completeness
2 - The technology engine works well and I encountered no bugs at all, and you can beat the game, but there really isn't enough content in terms of gameplay options or even narrative material to really feel like a full game / experience yet.
2 - Does what it says, and fairly well. Devs themselves say that some parts are unfinished, but there's more of a feeling of promise in that than despair ;) Title screen with instructions.
Aesthetics
3 - Very nice tile graphics for many types of terrain plus a day/night cycle. The atmospheric music works well too, aptly conveying sadness combined with the determination of a rhythmic trudge onwards. The combination of art, music and text does a fine job in revealing a sliver of an interesting, if seemingly doomed, world.
2 - Nice graphical tileset that goes together well. I can tell what stuff is.
Fun
2 - Running away from the encroaching shroud of chaos whilst making seemingly important when dialog boxes pop up and learning about the game world is good fun as long as it lasts, but the content is depleted relatively soon and almost every playthrough ends in victory. It's tantalising to imagine all the directions and activities that this game can take, but content-wise it isn't there yet and this saps the fun.\
2 - Honestly I kept waiting for it to be over. The small amount of content was a bit repetitive.
Innovation
2 - Reminds me of last year's uglier, deeper 'A False Saint, An Honest Rogue' but the narrative focus is still refreshing and the relentless push northwards is a fun, and narratively tackled, take on the hunger clock in general.
2 - Being story driven and survival focus was nice. The corruption coming across the land was cool. Mode of play was innovative for an RL. If I was allowed, I'd give it a 2.5
Scope
2 - Reasonably fine for a 7DRL but it's a shame more gameplay and narrative content didn't make it in. Something to build on?
2 - Right on for 7drl. take an idea and run with it. make it as good as you can in that time. More content (random encounters) would have increased this.
Roguelikeness
2 - Apprerance-wise more than a whiff roguelike (advancing corruption, aesthetics, discretion sometimes being the better part of valor), but doesn't yet really play like one. \
1 - Not very roguelike. Only one pickup, no monsters or combat or spells. 2D, tile based. @ as the hero. 7drl yes, rl no.
A relentless aura of chaos pushes from the south and the necessity to survive compels you northwards. You scavenge supplies on your way learning about the world, encountering friends and foes and making decisions that may help or hinder your survival. Tiredness creeps up on you so you must make time to rest, even as chilling corruption edges ever closer. \ \ You are thrust straight into the action and gradually begin to pick up a sense of what goes on, the art, music and text add successfully to the ambience so there's a distinct initial sense of excitement and desire to explore. Northbound has a cool take on the hunger clock and is an accomplished entry by way of engine and aesthetic, but unfortunately currently falls somewhat short on content and gameplay. It has nice ideas - like the stragglers that you can pick up on the way in the hopes of building a band able to survive better, multiple endings, and tantalising text references to the elements and events of the world - but the ideas are still a bit limited in scope. The emphasis is distinctly on the narrative, and I can see it working well in this format, which is why it's a shame there isn't more content yet. The trek could also do with much more in the way of interesting decision-making, tactical combat of course springs to mind, or just more complex and interlinked narrative choices, which will hopefully be added in the future.
This was an interesting game, and I'm glad I played it. I also hope the devs continue with this. It's a cool idea. Add more to it, both items and random encounters. That being said, if it remains in its current state, there isn't much reason to play it more than twice, because as far as I can tell, that's all it takes to see most or all of the content.
Obumbrata et Velata
Completeness
2 - Periodically the game crashes. And compiling it was a quest of it's own.
Aesthetics
2 - The look of pure console/terminal games depends very much on terminal program they are being run in. In my case the game look even better then on author's screenshots. But still it's very generic ascii with input limitations of a terminal program.
Fun
2 - You run around, kill monsters, pick items and descent deeper. Cave-like dungeons are rather annoying to explore, but in this case levels are small enough to not bore you to death. Unlike victrix abyssi on which it's based on, it's more fastpaced. I couldn't estimate how fun lower levels are, as the game crashed several times around level 10.
Innovation
1 - Items with durability, movement based passive skills - we've seen this before. So, nothing new here.
Scope
2 - I compared it with victrix abyssi 0.9. There are a few new monsters, a few new items and several simplistic passive skills for classes. I guess it's ok for 7drl.
Roguelikeness
3 - True roguelike.
More or less classic rogue experience. Weapons and armors have durability. There are 3 classes that differ in passive abilities that are being unlocked as you gain levels. Actually this game is an improved version of victrix abyssi by the same author.
R.U.S.T.
Completeness
2 - Stable, though it feels like it's missing features.
2 - The game seems quite stable, but seems to be missing features in terms of the ability to equip items beyond the teleport adapter. Perhaps if I got further I would be able to get the missing ports, but this was not obvious to me.
Aesthetics
3 - Pretty and clear graphics, with really smooth movement between cells. The directions moving in isometric feels confusing at first but soon you get used to it.
3 - The tileset fits the theme perfectly. I personally dislike the mapping from the isometric view to arrow keys, but it wasn't too bad to get the hang of.
Fun
1 - This is quite monotonous to play, unfortunately. Both the local maps and the larger levels are quite frustrating to navigate around. The enemies have little depth, and you'll spend most of the time just avoiding them fairly easily.
1 - The nature of the combat and lack of items turns this game into a puzzle-feeling game where you just try to avoid combat altogether. Each section of the levels feel very samey so this got boring very quickly.
Innovation
1 - Pretty standard crawler.
1 - Nothing new was brought to the table.
Scope
2 - Solid little game, though could do with more elements to the combat.
2 - The game is about what I would expect from a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
3 - Turn-based, procedural, permadeath. The levels aren't standard roguelike fare, but close enough.
3 - While lacking the complexity and tactical combat of most roguelikes, the game is nevertheless clearly a roguelike.
You are a robot fighting other robots whilst trying to navigate round and collecting key items to advance. The actual gameplay mostly involves dodging around the enemies though, and doing a lot of backtracking on the maze-like map. It's a short and simple game, very well presented, but lacking in compelling gameplay.
The basic premise of R.U.S.T is that you are a little robot trying to restore four memory banks. The isometric graphics of the game are quite nice and there are no obvious bugs or deficiencies to the game. In terms of game play, the only mechanic implemented seems to be the classic bump-to-attack. Unfortunately, the deterministic nature of the combat means that to engage in combat will result in you taking damage. Consequently, once you have found the item which lets you use the teleporter to go to the next level, you will essentially want to avoid all combat. This gets harder and harder as the enemy robots get bigger and more plentiful, making the game feel more like a puzzler in which you try to avoid contact with the enemy robots. It was fun for a bit so you may want to check out the game, especially given how easy it is to get running in your browser. However, for me personally, the game quickly lost my interest.
The Tablet of Ananias
Completeness
3 - It may be simple, but everything's there.
1 - In some ways the game feels quite polished and feature-complete but it crashes 80% of the time (I counted) so I can’t justify giving it any higher than a 1. Sadly 20% functional just isn’t good enough for even a 2.
Aesthetics
2 - The sprites are nice work by Denzi, though the background tiles are slightly busy. The log is also not integrated/unified with the rest of the interface very well.
2 - There’s a certain grey drabness to it but it’s otherwise well presented and the UI works well.
Fun
2 - Click on enemy (repeat until dead), click on potion, click on door, back to step one. It's appealing in the core hack and slash way, though it would be nice with more gameplay elements.
1 - Reasonably fun (if a little repetitive) for as long as it works. Unfortunately it’s hard to recommend when your runs are almost guaranteed to end in a crash.
Innovation
1 - The mobile-appropriate input scheme is the only area of true innovation here. In terms of gameplay it's a bit stale.
2 - Implements a novel control/movement method.
Scope
2 - Average for a 7DRL.
2 - Reasonable scope for a 7DRL
Roguelikeness
3 - Definitely a roguelike.
3 - Some variations on the norm but still feels like a roguelike.
Surprisingly simple and appropriate interface for mobile, while retaining the core mechanics of a roguelike. But the game is your everyday room-to-room hack and slash affair: Collect potions (there are plenty, so it's pretty difficult to run out of HP unless you aren't paying attention to your status), find better weapons, and kill monsters. The weapon durability mechanic forces you to change weapons eventually, but there are plenty of those lying around, too, and you can acquire the third type of item (scrolls) to restore their durability. Not a very difficult game, but also not a bad way to kill time on the run.
I quite like The Tablet of Ananias, and that’s why it’s so infuriating to play. The first thing that jumps out at you when you start playing is the control scheme. At first I thought I couldn’t move - I tried both keyboard and mouse but with no success. It took a few minutes to realise that the game doesn’t use free movement as in most roguelikes but instead uses a sort of node-based movement system. Rather than being free to roam around each room as you see fit, you click on a door to slide on over to it, or on an item to go to its location (and again to pick it up). I gather that the idea is to streamline dungeon exploring for the tablet market. There’s no fiddly clicking or key-bashing to move around; it’s simple, efficient and well designed for touch control. I played it on a PC but this control method makes perfect sense for a mobile device, much better than the ghastly on-screen keyboard I’ve wrestled with in mobile ports of things like Dungeon Crawl. \ \ Though it was designed with touch screens in mind, this control method works well enough using a mouse too. It alters slightly when you see an enemy, giving you fractionally more control. You still can’t move freely, only towards an enemy/door/item, but it slows down to a more familiar turn-based arrangement. Whether you’re moving forward to engage a foe or trying to escape through a doorway, you move one step and the enemies move one (or more, in some cases) until you reach your destination, in contrast to the smooth glide from location to location that you witness in non-combat situations. This slowing down for combat is a good idea in principle but not a great help in practice. Since you still don’t have freedom of movement there’s very little in the way of tactical positioning options. It basically comes down to which enemy you take a swing at each turn. It still works well enough, particularly considering this game seems designed to be short and streamlined, but it can feel a little limiting after playing more conventional roguelikes. Want to move round so you can put a weaker enemy between you and a stronger one? Tough luck. You’ll just have to tank the damage or try to run away. \ \ This isn’t a big problem though. The fact that gameplay comes down to clicking on doors, clicking on items and clicking on enemies does lead to it becoming repetitive after a couple of hours, but again it’s worth bearing in mind that as a tablet game it’s probably not meant to be played in long sessions. People often bandy about the term ‘coffee break roguelike’ and I think The Tablet of Ananias is one of the rare cases in which that’s actually an apt description. If you have 20-30 minutes to spare, it’s well suited to a few quick plays. \ \ Or it would be, but... Sadly The Tablet of Ananias has a glaring flaw. Again, I haven’t played it on a tablet but on PC at least, it’s broken. I’ve played it in different browsers on multiple computers and this issue occurs with the same frequency in all cases. Basically, the game crashes 8 times out of 10. This is no estimate; I actually counted. Out of my first 10 runs, number 5 and number 10 ended in character death but all of the other 8 ended in game crashes. I took screenshots if you’re interested. Every time, after anywhere between 1 minute and about 10 minutes, I would go to move into a new room or a new floor and find that either I was stuck in a wall, I was off the map, or I was nowhere to be found at all. This wasn’t just a graphical glitch, either. The game became completely unresponsive in each case, forcing me to refresh the page and start the game over from the beginning. If this happened occasionally, I wouldn’t mind. Even the best and most polished games can freeze up or crash from time to time. But this wasn’t occasional, it was 8 times out of 10 (I stopped counting after the first 10 but it seemed to continue at about the same rate). To have promising run after promising run, including what seemed like a potential winner, ended by a glitch and/or crash is infuriating and unfortunately it makes the game impossible to recommend in its current state. I tried it on as many different PCs and browsers as I could in case it was my rig that was the problem, but this crashing issue persisted uniformly. \ \ The game is pretty good. It’s a novel redesign of some roguelike fundamentals that works well, though could stand to be refined a bit more. It’s just a shame that you can’t really play it. There’s no point. 10 minutes down the line you’ll be defeated, however well you were doing, not by an enemy or by hunger but by the game itself.
Unearthly Ichor
Completeness
2 - Some bugs with picking up items, especially if they fell on other items. It's also possible to die and start in one of the upgraded forms. Some slight character overlapping during conversations and typos. Otherwise stable.
3 - It is bug free complete game.
Aesthetics
3 - Nice use of the Oryx tiles, good animation when collecting mana, and the music's a nice touch.
3 - Nice tiles, nice lighting, good atmosphere.
Fun
2 - I would've enjoyed it more if it were either turn-based or the characters could move freely. As is, I frequently found myself shooting in the wrong direction.
1 - It's way too simple. You don't have to make any choices at all. Just rush forward and kill everything on your path.
Innovation
1 - The lives/mana mechanic is the most interesting mechanic, but it's not used to much effect currently as it only matters once reaching the final form. Otherwise straight hack & slash.
1 - It looks like some interesting mechanics was planned for the character switching, but it wasn't implemented. Right now the character switching does not affect the way you play the game at all.
Scope
2 - A solid 7DRL effort.
2 - It's a very weak 2, but there are some items, some monsters, even bosses. So it's just a tiny bit more then tech demo.
Roguelikeness
2 - This feels closer to Binding of Isaac with its boss battles and realtime action.
2 - I don't mind realtime in roguelikes when they have some mechanics and/or features to justify this realtime. In this game realtime forces you to tap the button as fast as you can in order to minimize the damage that the character takes. I don't think it's a property of a good roguelike.
Your uncle has been practicing the dark arts, and something unholy is brewing in his basement. After grabbing a knife in a hidden hall, descend and learn the truth.\ \ Unearthly Ichor is a realtime, tile-based hack and slash where your mana can be used to change form, unlocking an extra life and gaining different attacks, or to use abilities to thwart the horrors. Descending to the next level of requires finding and slaying the boss monster on the current level.
This game has a good atmosphere, but lacks in a gameplay department. There is some kind of character shift mechanics, but it is not explained in any way, and it doesn't affect how you play and what you can or can't do. Combination of discrete movement and realtime combat is almost always somewhat confusing.
ZERO ZERO PROJECTOR
Completeness
2 - Missing some polish but it all works and feels mostly put together.
Aesthetics
3 - Unity almost makes this too easy! What would otherwise be bland levels look creepy and cool with dynamic lighting. The enemies are drawn 2D in a 3D world which is a really cool effect.
Fun
2 - It's definitely fun! Just don't go into it expecting anything like a traditional roguelike.
Innovation
2 - The potion mechanic is interesting and worthy of further experimentation.
Scope
2 - About what I'd expect from a unity 7drl
Roguelikeness
1 - Definitely NOT a roguelike, but hey, it has potions!!
This is a fun little first person shooter with some crazy-looking monster graphics. The game is made in unity, so it runs great. Levels and effects are fully 3D and look fine, but the enemies are done as 2D \"flat\" sprites, which is really cool looking! The main mechanic revolves around using the various potions you will find scattered around the level. The problem is you can only throw the topmost one, and potions can be good (health, ammo) or bad (hurt). You need to stand in the clouds to actually get the effect, which is not intuitive. Once you get a hang of the main mechanic it's a fun time. And the included mixtape is rad.
plato rogue
Completeness
2 - Some game-crashing bugs (main.lua 1525: attempt to index local 'cm') encountered rarely. Not certain if oil is actually used for anything. Otherwise seems stable.
2 - I got an error when trying to wield an identified +0 spear, but other than that it seems nice and complete.
Aesthetics
2 - The popup text from the other students is a great idea hindered by being hard to read. The menu worked well as an interface (though I found myself hitting enter to select an option and inadvertently closing it). Drawing the new characters over the background characters made it more difficult to see what the foreground character was, and the periods being at the bottom left instead of closer to the center or middle made it look like the character is outside of the room when standing at the upper or right edges. And how is armor used? It can't be equipped or used and wield seems to be for weapons.\ \ I'm not certain how much of this is a result of being true to PLATO or not, and in general the aesthetics worked well.
2 - The monochrome color scheme is thematic, but walking on a corridor superimposes the @ on # \ You can move diagonally by pressing two arrows at once. I never had to fight the controls.
Fun
1 - Feels unbalanced right now: Way too many secret doors and traps, lots of doing 0 points of damage to enemies on the first floor in the \"attack\" stance with a weapon equipped. My first playthrough spawned in a room with a trap and the only passage out being a secret door--it took a while to remember that there was a search button instead of it being a bug.
2 - It is a little difficult and I couldn't see any meaningful variation between different enemies.
Innovation
1 - Hack and slash.
2 - The power meter could set up a nice dynamic, though I wasn't able to get far enough to see it debuffed.
Scope
2 - Good scope for a 7DRL.
2 - it has what I'm guessing to be multiple difficulties, items you can wield equip or use, cursed items, hidden corridors and traps.
Roguelikeness
3 - Yep!
3 - 100% roguelike
Play a student from the Correspondence School of Marketing and Witchcraft seeking to earn favor from an instructor by finding his missing amulet. Invoking the PLATO aesthetic, the world and menu are all in amber, with some bits of color coming from combat results and your fellow students as they attack you. Potential nostalgia aside, PLATO Rogue has many standard roguelike features with a variety of weapons, armor, and scrolls to help you in your quest. With many secret doors and traps, it pays to search as you go. \ \ included files are playable on Windows.
This game is a little difficult, when I tried a ring without identifying it, it killed me immediately and cursed spears are common. Visually it looks like rogue, with a similar dungeon layout and the same vision mechanics. Lamp oil is a nice soft version of the usual food clock. There are lots of unique phrases for battle and finding objects, and the enemies will often shout something when they first see you.
IX
Completeness
3 - Seemed complete. I was not able to beat the game so I'm not sure there is an end or a boss of some sort.
2 - The game runs fine, but feels very prototypish.
3 - Complete, bug free, and looks polished. Monsters have trouble navigating around pillars, but I don't know if I'd call that a bug.
Aesthetics
3 - Nice pixel art, enemies stand out nicely. Controls work great.
3 - The game look great (if you like pixel art). There is nice blood splatter when you hit the enemy.
3 - Great pixel art. The graphics are minimal but nicely done. Some extra floor/wall detail would be nice, but it's not a big deal. Some sound effects would be great too. It's a Smash TV type game; how about some one-liners? Controls are solid. It took me a while to realize that shooting was 8-directional by combing WASD keys.
Fun
2 - It's fun for a bit but after a while can get a big samey. It's much more fun with a gamepad.
1 - Game difficulty grows very fast. Shooting enemies are deadly thread given relatively slow walking speed of your character. When you pick a potion that modifies your shots, you are given 100 mana. Each shot cost 5 mana. With red potion can spend all mana in 2-3 seconds. Which is quite pointless. Next potion overrides previous even if you haven't spent all the mana.
2 - It's definitely fun for a few minutes with the caveat that it's actiony fun and not roguelikey fun. The \"random waves\" don't add up to very much replayability.
Innovation
1 - I don't like to give out scores of '1', but in this case there was really not much new here.
1 - Basic arena shooter. Nothing interesting or innovative here.
1 - Not really.
Scope
2 - Seemed about average in scope for a 7DRL. Nice variety of enemies and weapons.
2 - Probably enough for 7 days.
2 - A few different weapons, but they don't make much of a difference. Variety comes in monster type and there's a decent number of those.
Roguelikeness
2 - It's hard for me to see the Roguelike elements here. It has procedural generation it seems, so I'll give it a 2.
1 - Add classes, weapons, upgrades and more variety of rooms and enemies, and this could be at least roguelikelike. But in this state it's just a simple arcade with no connection to roguelikes at all.
2 - Anything with random elements and permadeath I'll award a 2, but this is far more Smash TV than Rogue. There's almost no player choice and it's really about twitch reflexes than tactics or strategy. You even have \"lives\" instead of health. Low 2.
This is a fun little real time arena shooter. Baddies come out of the walls and you get to blow them away. Just like the old SmashTV and similar games. It has all the essentials, like the 'twin stick' style shooting so you can run and shoot in a variety of directions instead of just shooting in one direction. It's a real time action game so you might want to hook up a gamepad or joystick of some sort. I got pretty far, saw several different enemy types, picked up various weapons. Fun all around. It doesn't have the strategy or puzzly aspects of a Roguelike but it's a fine example of an arena shooter.
This game is a prototype of an arcade arena shooter. You walk with cursor, shoot with wasd in 4 directions. There are 4 potions to pick. Green to shoot in 4 directions, red to shoot faster, blue to shoot stronger bullets and black to kill everything on the screen. You play for score (which is gold). It is technically possible to win the game by reaching floor 100, but practically it is impossible.
IX is a Smash TV type dungeon crawler with random waves of enemies. I think that sums it up. There are different shot types, but they run out very quickly (using Mana) and you're usually stuck with the basic shot. The variety ultimately comes from the various enemy types. In the end, it's pretty much just a pixely Smash TV. The difficulty ramps up fast. I died on level 3 on almost every play through. The enemies are tiny, your bullets are slow and tiny, and you are slow. Some of the enemies get cheap shots off by shooting before being visible on screen. Despite all that, I'd recommend it if you're looking for a great looking, quick action game.
Terminal Run
Completeness
3 -
1 - There is an end, but the game doesn't really have much to do in its current form.
3 - Outside of occasionally seeing enemies outside of the map, I didn't encounter bugs.
Aesthetics
3 -
2 - The neon look is simple, but it suits the theme.
2 - Very neon. It fits the theme well enough. The music is nice. Regarding controls, I didn't like having to switch between the movement controls and typing words, especially considering that \"hacking\" has to be done to open every single door and chest.
Fun
1 -
1 - What's there is okay, but because the game feels incomplete and there are few options available it isn't fun to play for more than a couple minutes. Giving a penalty for wrong guesses while hacking would give the game a bit more purpose. Improvements should probably focus around that concept.
1 - There were hints of how fun this could be when I immediately knew the solution to a hacking puzzle and I quickly typed it in. But of course I was only pretending that there was some sense of urgency.\ \ There's no strategy to the hacking or to the combat. After a few floors, I realized I could totally avoid being hit by enemies. Beating the game becomes a bit of slog because there's around 10 nearly identical levels.
Innovation
3 -
1 - You can basically do three things: Hack, attack adjacent enemies, or restore health. Nothing new here.
2 - A for effort. I'm glad to see something new tried, but it could use some work.
Scope
2 -
1 - Far too little content for a 7DRL. Feels like no more than a couple days effort. There's definitely a good core for a game, but not enough of a game yet.
1 - One enemy type. One attack. One item.
Roguelikeness
3 -
3 - It's essentially a roguelike given the map generation, turn-based gameplay, and (very basic) resource management, but could benefit from a lot more content.
2 - On the surface, it seems to play like a dungeon crawler, but it doesn't feel much like Rogue. There's permadeath, but once you realize how the attack cooldown works, you have almost no chance of dying. Low 2.
I did a video where I play and review of it Here:\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Yqh5JQJsE\ If you don't want to watch the whole thing then the link below will bring you directly to the part where I go and actually review it:\ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Yqh5JQJsE&t=23m30s\ And if you really don't want to watch the video here is a good approximation of what I say:\ \ Completeness\ It is complete and gets a 3, it is the game it was supposed to be from what I can see. I found no bugs, there where no crashes. Maybe they are somewhere but I didn't find them.\ \ Aesthetics\ I've gotta give this a 3. It looks amazing and the controls do what they should. There wasn't any input lag and everything did what I expected it to do.\ \ Fun\ Thats a 1. The hacking in this hacking game isn't fun. The game of hangman could be fun if there was hints or something. Also it needs a failure state as there is no consequence to choosing the wrong letter. The only loss state is the sub par combat. I don't really advise playing it, I advise looking at it. Watch someone play it. I have my video review of it and there was a link to another video on the games site because the graphics are nice enough to look at for a bit but the game play just did not satisfy me.\ \ Innovative\ Yeah this game was innovative and gets a 3. I have never seen a game implement hangman in this way. I do think it could be implemeneted better and I went into it in my video. There is great promise in what I see but as is its just innovative and thats all I can say.\ \ Scope (WARNING: Do not confuse with completeness)\ It fits what I think can be done in a 7DRL so it can have a 2. It fits what I expect and its complete.\ \ Roguelike\ It is a roguelike and deserves a 3. It seems different but its the same basic things with some twists to them. Just change the 3d blocks into a 2d tile and switch your character with an @ and be hard to tell it apart till you try to open a door.\ \ I spent a little under 30 minutes on this game and I kinda want some of that time back. Watch someone play it, look at the pretty graphics, move on
Hack open doors, attack enemies, and restore health using \"pots\" while looking for the exit. There's really not a lot to do in this game yet. Everything is represented by colored blocks, which would be good enough if there were more compelling gameplay to back it up; as is the game is a bit too simple. I should mention the hacking is accomplished by guessing a word hangman style, but there's no penalty for wrong guesses so you can just mash buttons (which is even in the instructions...), making that mechanic essentially pointless.
I hope you like neon. Terminal Run has nice music, a decent neon wireframe style, and obstensibly a cool hacking mechanic. Yet the hacking is a big letdown. The main problem is that the game uses real time elements when there is no need and fails to use them when it would help. Attacking has a 2 second cooldown. Yes, a cooldown even though the game is turn based. \"Hacking\" involves holding down space for a while (why?), then playing a game of hangman. The hangman turns into button mashing because there is no time limit or penalty for incorrect guesses. A simple timer a la Uplink would go far. The theme here is promising, but the gameplay is painful.
Cyber Ships
Completeness
3 - I'm impressed by how complete this game feels. It has plenty of content and no bugs. Every feature seems to be fully implemented. Very impressive. The only problem I found is that the keyboard controls listed in the description seem to be wrong. Primary weapon is space bar, secondary weapon is a, bomb is z.
3 - Seems to be fairly complete and polished for what it is. No major bugs encountered.
Aesthetics
3 - This game looks great. The menu is intuitive and clean, All game play related events are conveyed well by the art. Its amazing what this team was able to do in a week.
2 - Graphics are pretty nice and controls are fairly simple. Does not do terribly well at explaining how things work when you first play the game and little things like your ship going on top of the HUD count against it.
Fun
2 - This game hooked me, but I like space shooters. The controls are responsive and there's a good variety between the different ships. I know its supposed to be brutally difficult until you can boost your ship's stats, but there are some changes that could have made it less frustrating. There is very little room to maneuver on screen, bringing in the enemies lower on the screen, or moving them up the screen slower would have given the player more off a chance to dodge and made the early game more fun. The resources are extremely scarce until you can destroy large amounts of enemies, so the early game is more of a grind than the later game.
1 - While the basic shoot-em-up gameplay is entertaining enough for a few minutes, there is absolutely no strategy to the game and the way to progress is to just grind for research points. There is very little variety in enemies or gameplay.
Innovation
2 - I like the concept of grinding courses to build up your ship's stats. It adds a nice RPG element to an otherwise standard space shooter gameplay.
1 - Might count as innovative if it included any roguelike aspects, but as it is it's just a standard shoot-em-up.
Scope
2 - The three ships feel very unique and boosting different stats can really change an individual run . This leads to a lot of different strategies to play around with. There's enough content to sink a couple hours into.
2 - Not very much to it. There are a very limited number of enemy types and while there are different levels, there is very little variation between them.
Roguelikeness
1 - There's really no rougelike in this game but its a real time space shooter so that isn't surprising. However, even areas that could have integrated rougelike elements didn't, Levels and enemy patterns are static, and progression is saved between games.
1 - I don't think the authors of this game know what a roguelike is. In fairness; this game was also made for the cyberpunk jam and I don't think they know what 'cyberpunk' means either.
Cyber Ships is both very polished and very, very difficult. It is in no way a rougelike, but if you like space shooters it is definitely worth checking out.\ \
Cyber Ships is a scrolling space shoot-em-up. The graphics are pretty and you have three different ships to choose from, but gameplay is very basic and none of the three available ships are particularly satisfying to pilot. No powerups are available during the game itself - instead you have to collect 'research points' which you can then use, after death, to upgrade your next ship. The core gameplay seems therefore to be grinding to get enough reseach points to create a maxed-out ship and as such there is no real strategy involved and the gameplay rapidly becomes tedious. Absolutely every aspect of this game is pretty much the diametric opposite of even the loosest interpretation of a roguelike.
Like A Rogue 2
Completeness
3 - Very polished game, though lacking in balance.
2 - There are some bugs:\ - when there are two items on the same spot, I cannot choose which one to pick up\ - sometimes I cannot shoot because the game interprets this as wanting to pick something up\ \ I think the game is quite balanced (at least the first three levels, my character died on the fourth).
Aesthetics
3 - Artwork is pretty, sounds are very nice, interface is mostly fluid. No idea why there's no keybinding to shoot though - seems strange to bind it to mouse only. Minimap is both handy and annoying, since if showed the game contents (items, enemies) it would make the whole thing more playable...
2 - Monster and item graphics are nice. \ \ The first person perspective looks okay, but it makes the game less playable. What about adding an ability to play directly on the map?\ \ The map should display special stuff like spikes, switches, monsters, etc.\ \ I find the controls a bit inconvenient.
Fun
1 - The gameplay is really monotonous and brainless. The game seems to have taken all the worst lessons in game design from 80s dungeon crawlers. Decisionless equipment upgrades (+x attack, +y defence), samey monsters, annoying as hell spike traps, too much gold and arrows for either to matter, boring key-hunting. The dungeons take long to explore, slowed down further by first person mode, and the combat is extremely shallow. The game designer should rethink where he gets his inspiration from - this stuff was bad 20 years ago.
2 - A bit boring, unfortunately. In my first serious game, I think I have reached level 4 and died there. Unfortunately, I did not care to play again. Probably due to lack of innovation, and FPP making navigation harder.
Innovation
1 - Painfully traditional.
1 - Using first person perspective is not innovative (even with Oculus Rift). Other features are not innovative either.
Scope
2 - A lot done in 7 days, even shops! Unfortunately a lot of the actual game content is very samey, with equipment and monsters just being bags of increasing numbers.
2 - Nice graphics (although I think they were not designed for this particular game), items, monsters, potions, missiles. locks-and-doors. Okay for a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
2 - Turn-based, procedural levels, permadeath, but the first person view limits tactics significantly.
2 - High 2. I do not want to give 3, because the game is relatively simple, and also FPP reduces the roguelike feel of the game in my opinion.
First person turn-based dungeon crawler, with the added coolness of working with Oculus Rift. Unfortunately for all its lovely artwork the gameplay is very shallow and outdated, with the entire grind being very monotonous. It needs extra tactical options and more interesting item choices, perhaps in the vein of the very similar Rogue's Eye from last year.
A roguelike with:\ - four-directional movement\ - first person perspective view, with quite nice graphics of monsters and items\ - ittems affecting Attack and Defense stats, health potions, health crystals (+max HP), arrows\ - missile combat (for both player and enemies)\ - lock-and-door puzzles\ \ Despite my low scores, I think this is a solid entry to the 7DRL challenge, and a good choice if you want to see how a rather traditional roguelike would look and play in the first person perspective. Unfortunately, there is no innovation, which makes the game a bit boring.\
Lyon's Den
Completeness
3 - This could be a 2 since the gameplay is underdeveloped, but this was already taken into consideration with the Fun score, and everything else seems to be in place.
2 - Overall, many standard RL mechanics are there. \ At the start, you choose the race and the class of your character, but they are different only in HP/MP/speed. \ Available skills are also not very deep, and they are the same for all classes.\ Regarding the game balance: After dungeon level 10, the difficulty starts increasing steeply, and somewhat artificially: the same enemies become beefier.\ Once, while playtesting, the generated map turned out to be disconnected (not sure how frequent this bug is).\ The game feels polished, runs smoothly, and promises quite a lot, but falls short in delivering that.\ Many game features are just stubs of the planned functionality.
Aesthetics
2 - Although the map and its inhabitants are a little dark, the interface is very consisent and pleasing. Controls are also simple and easy to get the hang of.
3 - Nice looking ASCII. The interface is great.
Fun
1 - This is a skeleton of what could be a good game, but as is you're pretty much just walking around bumping into letters without enough information to make interesting tactical decisions. There needs to be a way to know something more about enemies and combat other than simple trial and error. The most fun part was picking a race and class, since the choices are certainly unique, but after that there's nothing to keep the gameplay compelling.
1 - Nearly all game situations reduce to 1HP melee combat.\ On the low levels, this is very easy. Later, when the mobs start dealing real damage, \ fast mobs become harder to deal with, you have to adjust to the time system to prevent them hitting you.\ The skill \"Charge\" become very important at this stage. \ The game is monotonous, going to the next dungeon is not exciting or fun, because it is just the same as all previous dungeons.
Innovation
1 - Bump and kill.
1 - The game aims to be a standard generic roguelike without novelties.
Scope
2 - Fairly standard 7DRL scope.
1 - The game is not much more than a roguelike engine. Only melee combat is available. There are some combat skills,\ however they are not extremely interesting, and don't affect the game significantly.
Roguelikeness
3 - Very much a standard roguelike.
3 - Roguelike.
A fairly standard dungeon exploration roguelike, though there is definitely an interesting collection of races you can choose from: Angel, dragon, werewolf... It's not explained what the differences are, though after trying a few some are definitely better than others. Angels start with 4 HP, dragons start with around 40! Enemies come in similar varieties, though none are identified until you attack them. Pretty much all are one-hit kills by bumping into them, though, so there isn't much intricate strategy involved. Defeat all enemies in the current to regain full HP before going to the next map. Each time you raise a level you gain a new ability, though the early abilities seem more or less just ways to turn your MP into extra damage, again not really necessary since you can bump everything to death pretty easily. Then sometimes you'll meet something you can't defeat but there's no way to know that before it smashes you dead. At least the game's easy to start up (browser), so it's okay for a coffeebreak excursion, but it will need more work to make it enjoyable.
Lyon's Den is a very traditional roguelike. To open the stairs to the next dungeon, you have to kill the red mob (the key keeper, so to speak).\ Some mobs, when killed, give you HP or MP. Clearing a level recovers your HP and MP to the maximum.\ Monsters are all the same and behave very simply (wandering around at random, then beeline and attack once the player is spotted).\ The game is playable, and looks very good, but not particularly enjoyable.\ Probably, some additional features such as inventory / ranged combat / spell casting / identification / interestig mobs \ are needed to make a more complete game.
OL Rogue
Completeness
3 - Seems complete, no bugs found.
2 - No bugs that I could find but is missing many essential roguelike features such as random levels, inventory, items, monster tactics, etc.
Aesthetics
2 - Looks like a standard ASCII roguelike. No rest key means lots of walking back and forth to heal up.
2 - Totally fine on the colors and graphics.
Fun
1 - Not enough going on. Grinding is super easy but there's no rest key or auto-heal when you wipe out a level so you'll spend lots of time walking back and forth to heal up. Winning is trivial.
1 - Sadly it is not very fun. It is basically impossible to survive once you are surrounded, and avoiding monsters is very easy. The monsters move mechanically and the levels are basically giant open areas so it is just a matter of moving diagonally around until you get to the next stairs. The victory screen was cool!
Innovation
1 - The static levels with different shapes are kind of neat, but nothing really innovative here.
1 - Nothing new here.
Scope
2 - A pretty minimal roguelike implementation, but not bad for a 7dRL. At least all the systems work.
2 - Reasonable scope. Browser-based is not easy to do, especially PHP. I tip my hat to the developer!
Roguelikeness
3 - ASCII, turn based, permadeath, amulet
3 - It's definitely a roguelike, although it is lacking a lot of features I normally associate with it. It checks the most basic boxes though: ASCII, grid, combat.
Kind of interesting dungeon generation, but overall not enough gameplay to be interesting.
OL Rogue is a pretty bare bones browser based roguelike. There's no inventory and the levels are pre-fixed. Looks like a great start to a roguelike but is missing lots of essential roguelike features. The monsters move somewhat mechanically and with wide-open levels it is very hard to win once surrounded, fortunately avoiding monsters is very very easy.
Powerslave
Completeness
3 -
3 - It runs fine, no bugs found.
Aesthetics
3 - I really liked the look of the game. It was a bit nostalgic, which I think a lot of people can get behind.
3 - I've spent many many hours in from of my ZX Spectrum, so this game touched some nostalgic strings of my soul. Aesthetics is the most subjective criteria. People who have no idea about spectrum might see in differently.
Fun
2 - I would have prefered a much higher difficulty curve. Also, games can get much more fun when you have multiple options to approach a situation. This game fell a bit short there.
1 - Unfortunately the gameplay is very boring and repetitive.
Innovation
1 -
1 - Very basic game, nothing new here.
Scope
2 -
1 - One enemy (with two sprites) and two items. Very few pre-designed rooms that might repeat over and over. I'm afraid it's too few even for more or less standard fullfeatured 7drl.
Roguelikeness
2 -
1 - The only random element of this game is how rooms randomly selected from fixed set of pre-designed rooms are connected. This randomness have no significant effect on gameplay. Purchases in a shop are no-brainer and do not change the playstyle in a slightest. To me it's not enough to be called even rl-like.
The game looked nice, played well without bugs, and seemed complete. Good job overall.\ \ I would recommend increasing the difficulty a bit. Early on there is little-to-no challenge. \ \ Great job adding all the elements that you did: levels, shopping, items, etc.
This game definitely have ZX Spectrum vibe in it. But, unfortunately, this is the only good thing about it. This is a labyrinth game where you have 'water clock' that is constantly ticking down in realtime and serves as hp as well. Starting from level 2 you need to find the key[s] before you can exit the level. It's pure luck if you pick the right turn and pick the key before you find exit. Otherwise you will have to backtrack thru rooms without potions and might dehydrate in the meantime. There are two enemies that differ only visually. Upgrades of 'fireballs' in the shop between levels increases number of simultaneous fireballs in the air, which doesn't really decrease time required to kill an enemy very much. Starting from level3 the game is very tedious and boring.
Princess Rescue 2014 7drl
Completeness
2 - While stable, Princess Rescue is definitely missing features that would make this a full, enjoyable \"game.\" It's at least a good base to build on!
2 - The game is complete including help files. You need to set your keyboard to EN and not use national keyboards. This took a while to find out.
Aesthetics
1 - A bit too simple. The caves/dungeons could use some sprucing up, and a color scheme beyond basic red-green-blue would be nice.
2 - Text based dungeon with clear colours for easy understanding of levels. It also has good in-game help by pressing '?'. No sounds.
Fun
1 - This game is missing some key elements that would make it a lot more entertaining, most especially enemy AI beyond the single rule \"move towards player when they're nearby.\" In addition to that a greater variety of enemies is needed. Floor after floor of goblins or skeletons is not enough. Weapons and armor are good enough as is, and it was actually vaguely satisfying to find better ones, but there wasn't much of a point since enemies aren't really a threat in their current state.
2 - The game is pretty basic. It is ok to play but a little repetitive. In reality you need to go for goblins, skeletons and finally trolls.
Innovation
1 - Hack & slash.
2 - This game is pretty basic dungeon crawler.
Scope
2 - Pretty standard 7DRL.
2 - The developer had a storyline of rescuing a princess. There was three kind of dungeons, two shops to upgrade. There was more variant than just a maze.
Roguelikeness
3 - Simple random maps, equipment, turn-based, permadeath...
3 - Yes, definitely roguelike.
Your task is to rescue a princess from the clutches of a troll, exploring caves from an overworld map and killing goblins and skeletons to increase your capabilities before finally confronting the troll. It's easy in the sense that there isn't much of a challenge, but not so easy in that it's a rather long and boring grind in its current state. You can find better weapons (dice-based damage) and armor (depleted by blocking hits), as well as potions which restore missing HP or increase your max if already at the limit. You must earn enough money to pay the wizard to enchant your weapon before you can kill the finall boss, but acquiring the gold is just a matter of, again, grinding. Monsters respawn when you leave a map, so there's no shortage of those. But there is no FOV, you can see all enemies, and they don't even move until you get near them, so there isn't any strategy involved. Oh yeah, and for some unexplained reason you're represented by a '?' on the map rather than '@'. Hm...
A text based world with intuitive controls. The movement of enemies is very predictable. The enemies are also soooo easy. It is just farming for gold and equipment to get to the next level. I kind of liked playing it. The game field is small, there is just one set of stairs down and up from each level. You cannot get lost. Except in the beginning where you have a flat earth skin with some '!' marks marking cave entrances.
Sand Dune Monster
Completeness
2 - Very simple prototype. It works, but obviously incomplete.
3 -
Aesthetics
2 - Nice pixel art, nice moving sand and nice background music. But controls could be more intuitive. And fireball fired to the right looks like it flies backward.
3 -
Fun
1 - Way too simple and incomplete to be fun.
2 -
Innovation
1 - Nothing interesting.
3 -
Scope
1 - Very simple prototype.
1 -
Roguelikeness
1 - I don't see anything roguelikish here. Looks like puzzle.
3 -
Looks like prototype of a puzzle game. It's barely playable and easily winnable.
Not sure what to make of this game. I like that it has ambient sound... but what on earth am I doing? Even after reading the (terse) instructions, I still wasn't quite sure. Apparently you're this sand monster that has to get from the lower right end of this hex grid to the upper left end, for whatever reason. There are three colors of orbs in the hexes: the big light-blue ones, the medium dark-blue ones, and the small red ones. Each type of orb is basically a time bomb - every move you make (well, most of the time, I'll get to that) advances the timer, so the big light-blue ones turn into medium dark-blue ones, etc. The red ones turn into skulls; stepping onto a skull (or a red orb, since it will be a skull when you arrive) kills you. You can, however, shoot fireballs to destroy skulls (but not red orbs), by double-clicking. Supposedly you can do this once for each row you've traversed, though in practice that should be far more fireballs than you need. You can also do a sideways (well, up-right or down-left) move without advancing the timer; this should also consume a fireball use.\ \ Once you figure out what the heck you're doing, the game isn't actually all that hard; I was able to beat it in a few minutes. The ending screen is rather... out of place, though. Still, I think it's worth playing through once as a quick puzzle.
atomic goblin epidemic
Completeness
2 - The game works fine, no bugs found. But it looks more like prototype then complete game. There is almost no game.
2 - Extremely stable in gameplay, but came across one level generation bug where I couldn't continue playing as there was no where left to go. But is lacking in content as there are only two enemy types in the game, and only three items, two of which are health consumables.
Aesthetics
2 - The game have very generic look. Functional, but nothing outstanding.
3 - Looks very nice and clean, controls very well nice and easy to play.
Fun
1 - Little bit of a game that is there is rather boring and repetitive. Walk around vast caves, kill relatively rare goblins, restore health with healing items that are scattered in great abundance. There is no challenge.
2 - I had fun exploring the level generation to begin with, but the lack of variety made it boring when playing for long periods of time.
Innovation
1 - Nothing new here.
2 - There was some interesting ideas with the digging mechanics, that could be explored further.
Scope
2 - On the inside the game have solid architecture. A lot of work was done. Looks like the author managed to setup good and extensible game core, but failed to fill it with content.
1 - I liked the simplicity of the gameplay but the objective to kill a certain number of infected goblins made it feel lacking in scope.
Roguelikeness
2 - From formal point of view this is a roguelike. But the gameplay is way too simple. The true roguelike must have at least a little bit of depth.
3 - Very much a roguelike.
Kill goblins, collect healing items and shovels. Use healing items to heal, use shovel to dig one tile. Yes, a shovel breaks after one tile. Which is not surprising, as one usually use pickaxe to dig tunnels in the cave.
Atomic Goblin Epidemic is a nice simple roguelike. The levels are fun to explore at first but soon become a sprawling labyrinth that are difficult to navigate. You can use a shovels to dig away the walls however they are hard to use properly as I couldn't find many, it would be nice if you could use them more than once before they broke. \ \ Overall though I enjoyed my time with it, I really like the idea of being able to dig away at the walls. If the developer continues making this game I would focus on that aspect as you don't see it very often. \ \
Atarowg
Completeness
2 - You move between randomly generated rooms looking for loot and the stairs. I found two types of enemies where one is has a timing mechanic to it, the other a run-as-fast-as-you-can mechanic to it. You seem to pick up different types of loot giving you shield, weapon or scroll of healing.
3 - The game is complete and practically bug free.
Aesthetics
2 - For an atari game, I must say the graphics are really stunning, in a nostalgic way. There’s even sound!
2 - The castle, player, enemy, stairs, chests are typical for the 2600 console. This is not what you expect on an Android tablet today. But for the console it was written for the only complaint I have is the white flickering area chasing you in some parts of the game. Perhaps it is a hardware limitation.\ A nice touch is that all levels had different colours. The sounds did also fit the game.
Fun
2 - For short play sessions there is definitely fun to be found in here, but of the more simple kind that doesn’t bend your brain.
2 - This was a straight-forward mission. Find the treasure and return. The first times I played this I tried to fight the enemies which obviously is not good tactics. It drops me to the nether and after that to the 7th level. The game play there is a bit more difficult as the enemies are most of the time around. The other tactics trying to avoid enemies completes the game in no time. Everything seems to be generated on the fly in this game. Moving in and out between two rooms will get stairs and treasures. At least there is no grinding missions that take forever.
Innovation
2 - The game has a rather interesting death mechanic to it, where instead of perma-deathing you it throws you back to the bottom of the dungeon. When the player character dies, he’s transported to the nether regions. Exiting the nether region brings you to the bottom of the dungeon again.
1 - This is a very basic \"go find a treasure and get back\".
Scope
2 - Being an Atari game made in 7 days, I must say the scope is rather impressive, but not enough depth in the game to award a full score.
1 - The ambition to make a dungeon crawler on Atari 2600 is really an achievement. But as a rogue-like game the game play was quite basic. All loot was automatic except healing scrolls that were activated by pressing fire. You did not need any of those to complete the game.
Roguelikeness
1 - The procedural generation in this game doesn’t really feel roguelike and the real-time mechanic doesn’t lend itself well to tactical planning. Beyond hunting for the stairs in search for the lost artifact, there’s not truly much roguelikeness to be found in this game.
2 - The game does not have a fixed world to explore. It has elements like stairs up/down or rooms with many exits and loot. It has just one kind of enemy that is best to avoid. To avoid a fight you can just leave the room. No-one will follow.
Atarowg is a game made for the Atari 2600; that alone is an impressive feat! The gameplay feels more arcady than roguelike however, even with a few elements in there like dungeon traversal and loot. The gameplay is not turn-based and is more about dodging dangers with reactive response than careful tactical planning. Still there’s fun to be found for those looking for a five to ten minute hectic game session.
Searching for the Eye of Ginrich is run on an Atari 2600. In this case on the Stella emulator as I did not have a real 2600 unit. The controls are simple: move around with the joystick and press FIRE to consume a healing scroll. The challenge in this game is not to find your way to the treasure or the way back to the castle. If you can avoid the enemies and don't get transferred to the nether the game is a piece of cake.\ The game is quite short to play. A few minutes is all you need to find The Eye of Ginrich. It is in some treasure chest at the lower levels. Once you found it all the stairs start pointing up and then it is just to get going and run back to the castle.
ElvinRL
Completeness
2 - The game runs fine, but often generates disconnected maps, making the game impossible to win.
Aesthetics
1 - The game looks ok, but 7 seconds hacking and lengthly falling into the pit with annoying sounds are really really bad decisions.
Fun
2 - Most fun comes from figuring things out. Once you know what to do, the game become very repetitive. Estimating if you can or cannot pass thru the room without using snooze is a little entertaining at first, but grows old pretty quick.
Innovation
2 - There are some interesting concepts. Variety of enemy patters and behaviours.
Scope
2 - It's your average 7drl in size.
Roguelikeness
2 - It's too shallow for a genuine roguelike.
The most difficult part of this game is figuring out what to do. There are no instructions. 3 hotkeys are listed on the screen, but the most important one, SPACE, is not listed, which makes the game seem impossible till you press it accidentally at the right place. Once you figure out what to do, the game becomes rather boring and tedious. There are 36 fragments of security password. They are hidden in countless ... things? I don't know what is it. Hacking takes 7 seconds!!! That's really annoying. Falling into trap also takes some significant time and accompanied by superannoying sound. There are some interesting concept in the game, but implementation details are really turning you away from it.
Ironwood
Completeness
2 - It's rather weak 2. The game runs and core mechanics is there. But after awhile it is starting to slow down. At some point each turn was taking 8 seconds! The game can also start with you surrounded by guards.
Aesthetics
2 - The look of the console game depends on terminal in which it is being run. In my terminal it looks ok.
Fun
2 - If not for bugs, it is unexpectedly thrilling. Hiding in nooks and praying that guards won't look there.
Innovation
1 - There were stealth roguelikes before, nothing groundbreaking here.
Scope
2 - It's probably ok for a 7drl. But on lower end of 2.
Roguelikeness
2 - While the idea has some potential, I'm afraid current implementation is way too shallow to be called true roguelike.
Ironwood is an attempt at stealth thief-like game. But unfortunately it is rather incomplete and buggy. There is a directional fov of guards, noise system and guards alertness. You need to drag corpses out of the way of guards to avoid further alerting them. You can use smokebomb in dire situation. But that's all.
Monstrous Times
Completeness
2 - The game works fine and doesn't crash, but it can generate inaccessible enemies, making the game unwinnable. And it is probably not complete, as message from attempt to use gold and keys suggests.
2 - Trapped items and enemies in diagonal passages is a pretty big oversight. A few items clearly haven't been implemented yet such as gold and keys, yet gold always works fine as simply a collectible. A \"stamina potion\" increases you max health, oddly.
Aesthetics
2 - Nice pixel art. Nice lightning. But nothing outstanding.
2 - The game has cute sprites, if a bit blurry (probably due to scaling). On the other hand, the background tiles are solid colored. I much prefer the look of an earlier screenshot. Everything is clear, however. No complaints with the controls, though the fireball spell was a bit confusing.
Fun
1 - The game is very basic and very easy.
1 - It's not annoyingly frustrating like some other entries, but it's also very shallow at the moment. One big problem was that the Warpigs could be kited, which totally removes all danger.
Innovation
1 - Nothing new here. Generic 'my first roguelike'.
1 - Nope. This looks like the Hello World of roguelikes, which is perfectly fine for a start.
Scope
2 - Barely enough for a 7drl.
2 - A bit on the low side, but actually not too far removed from the typical 7drl. There are a handful of items, but they're not really needed with the low difficulty.
Roguelikeness
3 - Technically it's a roguelike. It's way too easy, but it's more of balance problem
3 - It's missing variety, but it has all the basic elements.
Very basic game. Walk around, kill warpigs and dragons. Become stronger by drinking stamina potion. There are gold and keys, but they do not have any use.
Monstrous Times is really simple. Your goal is to eliminate the monsters that have invaded your valley. And by monsters, I mean only Warpigs and the slightly stronger Dragons. I was unable to beat the game, either because an end hasn't been coded or because monsters were trapped in diagonal crevices and the game uses 4 way movement. It seems like a fine first attempt at a roguelike; the level generation with winding paths is pretty cool. But it desperately needs more content.
Shit Crimson
Completeness
1 - The game crashes when I cast a \"nearest\" spell. Portraits and music do not work for me for some reason (a 30 MB uncompressed wav file leads to a huge download, by the way). Also I do not see the descriptions.
3 - Complete and almost no bugs. Some of my spells seemed to mess up the display of my health bar, but that seems rather minor.
Aesthetics
1 - I do not like how this game looks. The letters are too small.
3 - This is a game about aesthetics. A creepy piano piece plays in the background. I assume it is hand crafted; I happen to like it a lot. I think I can hear barely audible voices in the background, which is a nice if unintended touch. I really appreciated the abstract, brightly colored portraits accompanying item descriptions. The descriptions themselves are quite detailed. There seem to be at least five descriptions of the player. The red motif features prominently; it is even used for non-visible tiles. Clean ASCII.
Fun
1 - Not much reason to play this game, unfortunately. The game does not give hints about how the spell power is calculated -- I did not feel interested enough to guess the rule myself, maybe it would be better to present this information in a spoiler (as there is no strategy in spellcasting if you do not know the rule, moreover, the words that I tried usually had very low power, which reduced my fun with the game).\
1 - I didn't find it very fun due to the difficulty, but I'm not sure a game like this is even aiming for fun. It's about dying.
Innovation
1 - Letter-based magic sounds like a cool idea, but I think it has not been well developed in this game.
2 - The spell system is incredibly confusing (I'd at least see the github page for spoilers), but it's definitely innovative. It was satisfying to cast heal spells, but most of my other attempts at spells were dead ends: no visible effect or not helpful enough.
Scope
2 - Okay.
2 - I must have played 20-30 times because it is so easy to die in the first couple rooms. Even so, I wasn't able to find much. The spell system alone deserves a 2 though.
Roguelikeness
2 - Too simple.
3 - Definitely roguelike.
In this game, you play as a dying man, who is able to cast spells by combining letters. I think this idea sounds interesting, but it has not been well developed in this game, unfortunately. The game seems to try to set a mood by giving fancy names to items and enemies (like \"regret\" or \"memento\"), and showing images and descriptions (which do not seem to work for me), but it feels strange to me, rather than artistic.\
This game is primarily about tone and story, though I don't know if a coherent story actually exists. You play a dying, middle-aged man. You fight against pain, regret, memories, etc. and revitalize yourself with trinkets. You cast spells by combining letters. As the letters get used up with each spell, it makes me think of someone who is literally saying their last words. Brilliant! The title made me think this wasn't going to be serious, but it is very serious indeed. It's a game about aging and dying. There seemed to be a lot of obscure literary references, but it was all a bit over my head. It doesn't have extremely fun mechanics or even a plot that would make me recommend it, but the disturbing aesthetic alone is reason enough to check it out. Unless I'm missing some critical spell, the game seems way too difficult. You can easily die in the first room. Maybe that's intentional?
The Curse of Midas
Completeness
1 - Giving it a 2 would be too generous but a 1 seems harsh. Still, the game definitely feels unfinished in several respects, and a lot more refinement is needed to prevent irritating oddities of gameplay and frequent frustration. I was left with the feeling (accurate or not) that the developer didn't care about the playing experience.
2 - The game runs and doesn't have noticeable bugs. But it feels like there is a missing something.
Aesthetics
1 - This definitely seems harsh, but the fact is I found the game quite ugly and some aspects of the UI need work, such as the complete absence of information about most things.
2 - The icons represent what they need to and while they aren't necessarily the prettiest they work. The controls are also quite intuitive and easy to get a grip on.
Fun
1 - Personally I’d say skip it. The confusing nature of the game, the fact that rushing through is the best approach, and the incompleteness all detract from the experience and leave it hard to enjoy for long.
2 - I didn't lose anything by playing this and I did feel good when I finished.
Innovation
2 - One or two novel ideas here, certainly. The 'gold is dangerous' idea could be interesting if done well, and the stationary enemies give the game a slightly puzzley twist.
1 - No innovation here just a standard RL.
Scope
2 - Reasonable for a 7DRL.
2 - About what I'd expect from a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
3 - Whatever other issues I have with this game, it’s a roguelike.
3 - A roguelike through and through.
My time with The Curse of Midas was mainly spent in a state of confusion. Between some curious design choices and some (presumably) bugs, it took a lot of replaying to figure out what was going on. \ \ This started with the title screen. The notes on the list of 7DRL entries mention that the title screen was never actually done, so what you get when you run the game in your chosen browser is a yellow square. I was expecting this the first time, having come straight from the list, but when I returned for review purposes a couple of days later I spent some time baffled as to why a game I’d played before was suddenly not running. It took a few minutes for me to remember that you just click on this non-title screen to start the game. It’s not an impressive start, and indicative of things to come. \ \ There’s a surprisingly lengthy backstory to The Curse of Midas but it’s available only on the release list and the developer’s 7DRL blog, not in the game itself, and I can’t help feeling that more time went into writing the story than developing the game. That’s probably not true but it’s the gut feeling I was left with. Your aim, though you wouldn’t guess it unless you read the backstory, is to grab loads of gold from this dungeon and escape with your life. The story also mentions a rumour that King Midas eventually became a golem of pure gold, so you might surmise that you’ll run into that at some point. Again, the game itself says nothing of this, just dropping you straight into the dungeon without context. \ \ The confusion that began at the blank yellow title screen only continues once you start playing. The game is entirely mouse controlled, which is fine, but nothing is clear. I’m all for figuring out how things work while you play, but I’ve completed the game now and I still don’t get it. The place is full of gold statues; when you touch one, it turns grey and something (or nothing) happens. The warrior statues seem to temporarily increase your attack stat, logically enough, but the effects of the wizard and the ordinary person have no discernible effect. There’s no magic system so the wizard doesn’t affect that, though there are wands so perhaps he makes those more effective. It’s very unclear though. The ordinary person statue doesn’t have any effect that I can see, apart from removing any attack bonus you might have. Again, I’ve completed the game and I still don’t get what the statues are about. \ \ Confusion continues. At random intervals the game starts playing itself. Your warrior/thief begins moving around of his own accord, attacking enemies and getting killed without any input from you. After this happened a few times I realised that if you hold the mouse button you sort of ‘auto-click’ so that when you let go of the button you can just drag the mouse around to move, interact and attack without having to click. I assume this is intentional but there’s no control explanation anywhere and I never intentionally held the button. Presumably I kept clicking for a fraction of a second too long. The fact that this function isn’t mentioned or described, it kicks in after such a narrow margin in click duration, and it often leads to accidental deaths, is completely infuriating. Even once I figured out what was happening and thus could actively try to avoid it, I still accidentally triggered it once or twice every game. \ \ So I was gradually working things out at this point. Touch the warrior statues, ignore the others. Make the shortest possible clicks and if necessary cancel the auto-move with another click. Okay, under control. Then came the deaths. I rarely died from combat - except for the final boss the enemies don’t actually attack you, they wait for you to attack them. This is actually quite a nice feature and means that there’s almost a puzzle element in deciding whether to get into combat and with which enemies. It also means that you can often avoid unnecessary risk if you’re low on HP. So no, I didn’t died from combat very often, but I did die a lot from something else. What? I had no idea. I think I know now but it took some figuring out. I would be merrily playing, then suddenly the game would kick me back to the ‘new game’ screen. After this happened a couple of times I noticed that what looks like a message window flashes up for a fraction of second before you’re kicked, but there’s no time to even begin to read it. I always just closed the browser tab and walked away in frustration at this point, but after a few recurrences I stopped doing that and just went straight back into a new game, at which point I found that the message window from your sudden, unexplained death appears in the new game (if you don’t close the tab and come back later). You can’t read it when you die, only when you re-enter, which is presumably either a persistent bug or bad design, rather than a conscious choice. It turned out that I was becoming a gold golem, like Midas before me. So...I was being too greedy about gold? Makes sense considering the story of Midas but the game actually encourages you to get gold. If you read the backstory, it strongly implies that your whole purpose in the dungeon is to get as much gold as possible! If you don’t read the backstory you’ll have no indication that you shouldn’t grab all the gold you see. In fact, in either case, the game itself eggs you on in your treasure hunting by throwing up encouraging messages at certain gold thresholds - things like “you feel indestructible” and “nothing can stand in your way” (I’m paraphrasing, I don’t want to play it again to find the exact wording). So the backstory tells you you’re there to grab all the gold, and the game tells you good things are happening as a result of picking up gold, but in fact gold kills you (but you won’t know that because you can’t read the death message). \ \ Again, it makes sense that you have to avoid Midas’ fate and working out that the gold is actually a danger is kind of satisfying in a way, but it would have been much more so had the game not botched the whole thing. Don’t tell me to collect as much gold as possible, praise me for doing so, then punish me for it a minute later. Bad design. \ \ The other confusion is items. You have to work out what they do but sometimes this isn’t straightforward. The first few times I picked up a sword, I clicked on it to try and equip it but it just vanished. It took a while before I discovered that using a sword boosts your attack stat. I assume that’s temporary since using more than one sword doesn’t stack the bonus and sometimes your stat goes back down for reasons that aren’t clear, but it’s really not apparent how this works. \ \ That’s how the whole game is. It has almost no explanation of anything, the explanation on the dev’s blog is actively misleading, the mechanics are opaque and confusing, there are bugs and conspicuous unfinished aspects - it’s a mess. There are glimmers potential for a good game here, but as it stands it’s neither gold nor even steel. It’s a lump of rusty iron that needs a lot of cleaning up and a lot of effort to turn it into what it aims to be.
Curse of Midas is a simple, graphical flash roguelike. The mechanics are the same as in any other hack and slash roguelike. Walk around trying to find the stairs down pick up items and kill anything in your way. The only major downfall of this game is the simplicity in itself that isn't a bad thing for a game but for me roguelikes need a certain level of complexity. The simplicity in the game largely comes from the inventory system the items you can pick up there are two kinds of staves/wands one of which doesn't appear to do anything, there is one type of potion, there is one foodstuff, and there is only one weapon which only increases your damage for a limited amount of time.
The Girl Who Played With The Dragons Nest
Completeness
3 -
Aesthetics
1 -
Fun
2 -
Innovation
1 -
Scope
1 -
Roguelikeness
3 -
In The Girl Who Played With The Dragons Nest you play as a young woman with a reckless desire for dragon steaks, daring to enter the nest of the titular beast, fighting through hordes of monsters and doors in an effort to approach the dragon and reduce it to some many flank steaks. Though I haven't read the book this is based on / inspired by so I could be way off base. Long story short is that you are trying to introduce a dragon to a stick with some pointy metal on the end.\ \ The gameplay is nethack inspired, for better or worse, with the bulk of the screen being given over to a dialog window. The battle generic monsters by rubbing against them, find generic loot by walking on it, step on generic traps without being able to detect them and slay a generic dragon by poking once with a weapon.\ \ The game is complete and seems to be relatively bug free. Currently, it has to be compiled from source and I ended up with a flickering screen, but I can't determine if that is my fault or the application's. The graphics are near monochromatic ASCII and the controls inherit the worst of nethack's \"press Q to quaff\" and \"press u to unwield\" which is about as unwieldly as it goes these days and the game requires none of the \"wear bag on head\" nonsense that stems from nethack's everything and the kitchen sink approach. The game is a decent diversion, I completed it on my third or fourth try, despite flicker, and I didn't feel the game was a chore to play. Aside from that, this is a cut-down, one level, nethack-like, its nothing anyone who has played a couple RLs won't be familiar with.
Zombie Tactics
Completeness
2 - * Humans sometimes move off map, often while still shooting.\ * Very playable.\ * Instructions at the bottom & in-game helped!
2 - I only got to the final field once. On that run when I had a fighting chance of beating the game, suddenly the game restarted. What!?!? Oh, I had unwittingly hit the restart button (that's where I needed to click on the map and there was no confirmation). Watch out for that button. Other than that, my main gripe is that a single enemy can roam off screen and continue wiping out your entire party while you have no way of getting at them.
Aesthetics
2 - * Panning was troublesome, too fast or too slow.\ * Zombie/human dots look out of place with the rest of the graphics.\ * Theme and mechanics didn't quite match. Expected a horde of zombies and a few people vs. a horde of people with a few zombies. Play-wise, was more like guerrilla fighters taking out the (gun-armed) zombie horde.\ * Why gravestones when the humans join my zombie horde?\ * Tiles were clear and easy to understand.\ * Great ambient music.\ * Sound effects worked well.\ * Enjoyed the zombie art.
2 - The sketches and the day/night icon are lovely. Even the text looks great (why does the title screen only say ZOMBIE though?). The tiles are a bit cartoony for the theme, but it works. The controls, however, are a problem. Panning to explore the map is really finicky, especially in a real time game.
Fun
2 - * Very slow. Lots of time spent waiting for the clock.\ * Enjoyed converting the humans.\
2 - It's equal parts fun and rage. After carefully reading the instructions and playing for a while, I came to the conclusion that Zombies Tactics was lacking on tactics. I collect my power ups. I wait until night. I tread carefully through the dense woods and yet my horde gets slaughtered over and over. Humans split up in different directions, but the horde has to travel in one direction. Perhaps splitting up into squads would help.\ \ On the other hand, there's nothing quite like successfully turning a camp of humans.
Innovation
1 - * Zombies.\ * Flocking hack & slash.\
2 - I've not played a game like this, but I suspect many are out there. The river mechanic is interesting.
Scope
2 - * Not much depth but enjoyable for what it is.\ * Solid entry.
2 - Always nice to see a day/night cycle in a 7drl. With the power ups, rivers, fields, etc., I can see that quite a bit of work went into this.
Roguelikeness
1 - * Random maps that, due to the flocking movement, have little impact on actual gameplay.\ * Limited tactics, some strategy.\ * Basis of a fun strategy game!
2 - My rule is anything permadeath + procedural gets at least a 2. Beyond that, it breaks every rule in the book. Real time. You don't control a single character. No items, discovery, exploration. One abstract guideline is notably absent: \"enemies are like you.\" What I mean is that you don't deal with fog of war or line of sight, so you have no idea what the humans are seeing. I really wish there was more predictable line of sight behavior (e.g. 3 tiles in woods is guaranteed to be safe).
Indirectly control a horde of zombies attacking humans and mutating to gain increased speed and strength. The strongest parts of the game are its aesthetics: The tiles are clear, music & sound effects fitting, and the zombie sketches are great. However, it plays more like a real time strategy game than a roguelike. Faster gameplay and a bit more depth to the decisions would make it an even better one.
I got really excited by the concept of Zombie Tactics. Control a zombie horde and hunt down humans in the woods? Sign me up.\ \ Turns out it's infuriatingly difficult to control a zombie horde. The humans in this universe must be expert marksmen and wield some kind of combination sniper rifle/machine gun. A couple humans once wiped out 40 of my horde, even though I was half a mile in the woods. The instructions indicate that dense forest protects your horde, but the effect seems to be negligible compared to raw distance.\ \ Add to this that your zombies move sloooow and even slower through ponds and rivers. Often, I didn't even want them going through those tiles, but they tend to wander. Next thing you know, half your horde is going down white water rapids in the next state.\ \ This game looks great and it can be fun as long as you're ready for some insane difficulty.
firstrl
Completeness
2 - Seems like there were more than a few bugs. And little balancing (killing a spider on level 1 should not take me 14 turns of combat)
Aesthetics
1 - Looks very nice. I dig the traditional display, and actually prefer it to most other libtcod games I've seen. Unfortunately the controls are terrible. Please include numpad at a minimum, in addition to vi keys.
Fun
1 - Fairly basic, couldn't get very far to determine fun-ness, but it has all of the classic roguelike mechanics I think!
Innovation
1 - Basic stuff here, which isn't a bad thing.
Scope
3 - About what I expect from a 7drl.
Roguelikeness
3 - Definitely a roguelike.
A simple roguelike with a few interface issues, but with some good classic touches. The dungeons look nice and the gameplay is your classic hack, slash, and corpse-em-up. Unfortunately the controls are ONLY limited to the vi-keys. I don't understand why you wouldn't at least include the numpad!! I could not get very far into the game without it crashing.
Card Bard
Completeness
2 - The game really felt complete, but it got a little repetive after a while. It was stable, but some of the bugs where noticable:\ 1) Around the time the second shop appears, the game will draw two card on top of each other when you kill a monster or make a bad move\ 2) After a while you only get 4 cards. Maybe this is a feature, but the game doesn't tell the player anything about it. It makes the game a lot harder
2 - The game words fine, but feels more like prototype then complete game.
2 - The game feels relatively feature-complete, considering the time constraints. It is well balanced. However, there are tons of small bugs:\ 1) You don't attack automatically when the wheel passes the yellow notch, contradicting the instructions.\ 2) However, you do attack automatically if your first card happen to have 0 cost (such as gold cards).\ 3) \"Added card X\" messages show multiple pictures and texts. Do I get more than one card? Or is it just a bug?\ 4) Monsters have the armor stat, but it does not do anything. Although, player's armor does work fine.\ 5) After 10 fights or so, you start getting only 4 cards instead of 5. Don't know if this is a bug or a feature, but it is not explained. \ Overall, the sloppiness of implementation is remarkable (considering how simple the game is). At least, the game is well balanced, so 2 points seem to be reasonable.
Aesthetics
3 - This is the best part of the game. The cards and UI felt very responsive, and it looked pretty good. Nothing else to say here.
2 - Pixel art of master Oryx is great. And it's used well in this game. But some kind of dungeon background will add a lot to the atmosphere. As it is cards look somewhat out of place.
2 - Looks good, but lacks polish. Particularly, pixelization is not consistent across the graphic assets, this is just careless.
Fun
2 - I thought it was a really fun game to play, especially for a 7drl. I learned the game pretty quickly, so that's a plus. I'd like to give this a 2.5, but the site won't let me.
2 - It's fun to try. But there are too few elements to be really replayable.
2 - The game is fun to play. Well balanced, although a bit short: after ~20 minutes of fun, the monsters get way too tough, setting a natural limit for your progress. Once you know how to play, the game becomes a little straightforward. You know that you have to minimize this,\ maximize that, and there are not too many decisions to make beyond simple arithmetic.
Innovation
2 - the addition of the wheel was new for me, but the game cards themselves were your standard rpg cards. This isn't a bad thing ofcourse.
2 - I haven't seen spinwheel mechanics like this before. It's an interesting twist to the card battle game.
2 - It's hard to estimate the innovativeness of a non-roguelike game. If it was a roguelike game with a similar mechanic of time-action patterns of skulls/not-skulls, for example some 1D stealth game, where you want to step on the right floor tiles, avoiding\ traps and guards, I would give 2 or 3 points, depending on the way the map was implemented. For now, just 2.
Scope
2 - I think it was a really neat concept to build in 7 days.
1 - Combat mechanic is very simple, choice of cards is very poor, enemies differ only in stats. Taking into account that ready art was used, it's less then I expected from the game done in 7 days.
2 - Right scope for a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
1 - This is a tough one. I don't think random elements make a game a roguelike. It was a fun game, but I wouldn't call i a roguelike in my opinion. However, Everyone has a different opinion about this, so you shouldn't be worried about this.
1 - It's a card game. Not even close to roguelike.
1 - Not really a roguelike, although it has some RL flavor. If it had at least some character development, I would probably give 2.
Had a lot of fun with this game! The game was quite complete for a 7drl, and the wheel mechanic was quite fun. However, the game had a few bugs, which got sometimes annoying (i'll explain further down).
This is a card (battle) game with one interesting twist. The cost of the card you choose to play spins the wheel by corresponding number of slots. If you end up on the skull, you'll get bad card into your deck. So you need to plan the order in which you play your cards. But overall number of choices you have is very low.
Card Bard is a card game, in which you have to defeat as many monsters as possible, using cards to temporarily increase your attack or defense, cast attacking spells, or drink potions.\ Every card has a cost. When a card is used, a wheel is rotated by the cost of the card. You have to select your cards in such a way that the wheel does not stop at skull symbols, otherwise you get penalized. So, you have to do some arithmetic, choosing cards so that you jump over the skulls.\ I believe, the game can be transformed into an interesting roguelike, if instead of the wheel, you have a 1D dungeon with items, traps, monsters, and maybe even quests.\ This game is only available for playing in a browser with the Unity plugin installed. If it's possible, try to provide downloadable exacutables (to run on Linux with Wine, for example).\ The game is interesting to play and it deserves your attention.
ColourBlind
Completeness
3 - The game seems to be complete and bugfree.
3 - The game seems feature complete and lacks any obvious bugs. It wouldn't hurt to have fairer maze generation as some maze clearly require as many as 20 steps to complete.
3 - No bugs, somewhat polished (a very nice tutorial, opening and death sequences). Enough for a low 3.
Aesthetics
2 - Nice pastel colors. Simple mechanics and ... confusing tutorial. Map goal being the only animated thing on the map creates an urge to move it instead of 'character' square. Turns being spent when you bump into wrong colored squares is questionable decision.
2 - The graphics are simple and 2D and controls are all keyboard. They are functional and don't get in the way of play.
2 - I do not understand why colors are named R,G,B but they are not Red,Green,Blue. Other than that, the simple graphics are appropriate. The only Unity 7DRL I have tried so far which looks reasonable....
Fun
2 - The fun is seriously spoiled by 'unwinnable' puzzles. You have to force colorchange and spend precious moves. The mechanics is way too simple for the game to be seriously replayable.
2 - The game lacks the depth needed for repeated playthroughs, but it fills a coffee break and I imagine competing for high scores with friends would be interesting.
1 - Playable, but unfortunately, I do not think the puzzles are really interesting.
Innovation
1 - Nothing interesting.
2 - Color-based mazing isn't an overly novel concept, but I can't recall a roguelike using it in a 7DRL
2 - I have not played a game like this, so I think 2 is appropriate.
Scope
1 - There are very few game elements here. And the game doesn't even try to generate solvable puzzles.
2 - A little on the low side of what I'd expect from a 7RDL in content, but it had a tutorial which nets to a 2 in my book.
1 - It seems very simple to implement.
Roguelikeness
1 - It's a very basic puzzle, not a roguelike.
1 - It's hard to call this a Roguelike, it really is a pure Puzzler.
1 - This has randomly generated maps and permadeath, but i does not feel like a roguelike at all to me.
Basic randomly generated colo[u]r changing maze puzzle. There are 3 colo[u]rs. When you pick one, When you peek one, this color become background, and you can walk thru anything of this color.
In ColourBlind, you play as the valiant non-spinning White Square forever trying to rescue his beloved slowly-spinning White Square only to have her snatched away at the last moment and hidden in a different part of the maze. The maze is littered with colored tiles and colored squares. Stepping on a colored square or pressing \"R\" \"G\" or \"B\" will change all \"neutral\" tiles to the corresponding color. Your white Square can't move from a tile with one color to a tile of another color. You are given 30 moves to start with, and each completed maze grants ten additional moves. Each maze is roughly 10 x 10. Given the choice of colors, ColourBlind's title isn't so much a theme for the game as a cruel joke on those afflicted games.\ \ Overall it is a well put together game that lacks deep content. The easiest way to solve a maze is to step from colored square to colored square as they all sit on neutral tiles and only avoid using RGB to color change as it costs several moves.
In this game, you go through a maze. There are colored walls and colored pills. Pills change the color of the background, causing the walls to disappear if they match the color (until you eat another pill).\ \ I think it is quite a nice simple game, and you can have fun with it if you like such games, but it has not much to do with roguelikes IMO.
Something Something Office Rampage
Completeness
2 - Seems fairly complete and no major bugs encountered, although it could do with a bit of extra polish.
2 - Stable, feels complete. I found one item with no name and no type, but I didn't do anything with it, and it didn't affect the game.
2 - The game is very stable only coming across barely any bugs, however it's content is somewhat lacking. I only came across 4 enemy types (but I didn't finish the game so they may be more) each enemy type didn't seem different from the other except being more or less powerful.
Aesthetics
1 - Standard ASCII. Forces you to use vI keys whether you want to or not (I don't). Lots of irritating little sticking points in the interface - you have to manually unequip your current weapon to equip another, multiple lines of text have to be manually cycled through. Not enough information given about what properties different items and equipment have.
1 - Only supports vi keys. This made the game pretty hard to play. Uses letters for some items, which can make them look like enemies, but this wasn't really so bad. The vi keys combine badly with an unfriendly inventory - you have to unequip a piece of equipment manually, then equip the new one. Blood splatters are always nice.
2 - General good looks, with some nice blood effects and a funny theme. However one enemy called something along the lines of: \"A well paid intern\" had a bad character colour and was hard to see clearly.
Fun
1 - A bit too basic and obtuse to be any fun. Combat is fairly shallow, without any real options to explore beyond bump-to-kill. Enemy AI is super-dumb - they will not follow you around corners and even in wide open areas will queue up patiently behind one another rather than attempt to surround you. There's consequently little challenge to it, especially since levelling up gives you a massive stats boost.
1 - This game is better than some, but its UI problems and fairly repetitive gameplay add up to a 1 here. If you really love vi keys, and want to see more of the office theme, you could give it a shot. The story bits are entertaining, but there are too many similar enemies and mazes between them.
1 - Only involves bump to attack and quite easy to exploit in certain areas. Encounters with enemies doesn't feel any different from floor to floor.
Innovation
2 - No mechanical innovation. The office-rampage theme is a little bit different from the norm but has been done before.
1 - Healing items, weapon, and armor. No surprises here.
1 - Nothing new here.
Scope
2 - Pretty basic. A very limited selection of enemies and equipment without much real variety between them.
2 - Feels like a 7DRL.
2 - Not bad at all for a seven day roguelike, but it isn't very ambitious.
Roguelikeness
3 - Pretty much, although it's a fairly shallow one.
3 - Definitely.
3 - Definitely a roguelike, no doubt there.
You have just been fired from your job and so of course all of your ex-co-workers are now trying to kill you. You have to make your way down the building, open the doors and escape, while brutally murdering as many office drones as possible. It's a nice (well, OK, maybe not 'nice') concept for a game, but for what should be a cathartic experience the fairly monotonous gameplay and a number of interface niggles make it seem more like hard work itself. The theme provides some humour, but smacking a middle-manager around the head with a binder gets old fairly fast and there's not enough variety in enemies or items to keep it fresh. The theme also makes it harder to understand the game in some ways - is a sharpened pencil a better weapon than a hefty binder? I don't know, and the game makes no effort to tell you.
Something Something Office Rampage is a game about being downsized by Ivil Incorporated and taking your revenge on the (occasionally mutated or zombified) office workers and managers. You can find weapons and armor, and level up your stats with experience, but these changes don't offer any new tactical experiences - the gameplay is rather repetitive, making the theme the game's strongest feature.
Something Something Office Rampage has a fun theme all about going on a murderous rampage through your office block which is owned by Ivil Incorporated. It plays somewhat like the original rogue, the screen occupies the whole floor and interactions are simple. Unfortunately the interactions are very simple, you can only bump to attack and items are only either weapons, clothing or health consumables. \ \ There's nothing wrong with simple per-say however encounters with enemies aren't very unique. The first 14 floors of the game can also be exploited very easily, since there isn't a hunger clock and enemies can't go up and down stairs. Meaning you can fight by staircase and escape to regenerate health when you get low. This exploit becomes difficult to use later in the game however, because it suddenly gets much harder. But it gets far too hard, far too quickly so it only frustrated me. \ \ All in all, I enjoyed the theme of the game, but not so much the gameplay. If the developer wants to continue improving this game, I would change the placement of the enemies to wait in ambush for the player, for some more interesting experiences. It would also be nice to see the level generation resembling an office more, perhaps with individual office cubicles?
Colorshift
Completeness
1 - It's just a little more than '@' walking on the screen. Not enough to be called a complete game.
2 - The game runs well most of the time but there were some noticeable bugs. Apart from this it feels complete.
Aesthetics
1 - It's libtcod game with rather questionable font of choice. Everything is so sparse with this font. One thing I don't really understand - why current color of the players is displayed as a letter, not as a color of '@'???
2 - Quite a nice ascii layout even if it does seem a bit 'in your face' sometimes.
Fun
1 - There is barely any game at all to be playable, not to speak to be fun.
2 - I definitely had quite a bit of fun with this game.
Innovation
1 - RPS theme was explored many many times.
3 - This game seems to bring some nice new mechanics into the roguelike genre with no inventory and none of the usual hack'n'slash and magic casting.
Scope
1 - Not even enough to be called playable 'mechanics prototype'.
2 - This game feels like it was made in 7 days even with all the innovative mechanics and so on.
Roguelikeness
2 - With strong imagination, assuming the game is more complete and playable, it could be called rl-like.
3 - With turn-based combat, perma-death and randomly generated levels this definitely feels like a roguelike to me.
You have counter for each of primary colors - R,G,B. R can absorb G, G can absorb B, B can absorb R. When you absorb some color, corresponding counter increases by one. You can change your color at will, but it will cost 5 of color you want to shift to. Enemies of color that can absorb you are trying to chase you, enemies of color that you can absorb are trying to flee from you. Basically that's all that there is.
This is a roguelike that is about colours primarily the colours blue, red and green. The ideas in this game are quite simple your player journeys around the screen changing colours and absorbing colours that are not your own. The game almost plays like rock, paper, scissors, blue absorbs red, red absorbs green, and green absorbs blue. Once there are no more colours on the screen you progress to the next level by standing on the X on the screen and pressing x. But beware as you journey through this colourful dungeon colours of different types will attack you just as you attacked them!
Fragility
Completeness
2 - It is feature complete and I didn't find any bugs but I could feel that it needed some polish still.
2 - The game runs fine, but lacks any kind of polish.
Aesthetics
1 - The non-standard range attack just didn't feel natural and the two enemy types I saw looked almost exactly the same except one being darker sorta.
1 - The game looks like your generic libtcod+python game. But controls... Controls are AWFUL. It looks like author of the game have some nonstandard keyboard layout. And he hardcoded controls with this layout. For a game where every move counts, having some non-intuitive controls really hurts. Ah, and the boss is dark blue. On the black background.
Fun
2 - It is worth your time to play so give it a whirl if you like this type of game.
1 - On every level you just need to find an exit. You can ignore most of the enemies simply by jumping over them and over walls. But levels are quite big, so you might spend some noticeable amount of time finding this damn exit. And 1 hp mechanics really makes this even worse. You can't make a mistake. So you have to explore big level without loosing focus even for a moment. On a level where boss appears, there can be many of them! Yes, many bosses! You can kill any of them to win the game. But since you can't really distinguish them, and each have 20 hp, this 'final fight' becomes really exhausting, in a bad way.
Innovation
2 - Its not fundamentally different but it uses some things in ways that I haven't seen done before. The ability to basically teleport exactly 3 squares is neat.
1 - 1hp mechanics was explored before and this entry doesn't add anything new.
Scope
2 - It has all the features of a roguelike with some things being better and some worse but overall good.
1 - libtcod+python tutorial with 1hp player and a few trivial monsters.
Roguelikeness
3 - It has some things which are slightly different but it all fall sunder what I consider a roguelike.
3 - Well.. It's very very weak, but roguelike. There are some rare moment where you actually need to think tactically.
I did a video where I play and review of it Here:\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQOaHmF3vZU\ If you don't want to watch the whole thing then the link below will bring you directly to the part where I go and actually review it:\ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQOaHmF3vZU&t=54m56s\ And if you really don't want to watch the video here is a good approximation of what I say:\ \ \ Completeness\ Is this game a finished piece of software? Just how polished is it, including balance and expected features?\ This can have a 2. It is feature complete and I didn't find any bugs but I could feel that it needed some polish still.\ \ Aesthetics\ Is the game aesthetically pleasing? Are the controls easy and intuitive? As a roguelike functionality is more important than outright charm - a well laid out ASCII game can get a 3 and a messy graphical game with bad controls can get a 1.\ I am going to give it a 1. The non-standard range attack just didn't feel natural and the two enemy types I saw looked almost exactly the same except one being darker sorta.\ \ Fun\ Is it enjoyable or compelling to play?\ The game gets a 2. It is worth your time to play so give it a whirl if you like this type of game.\ \ Innovative\ Does the game bring new ingredients to the table? Never before seen mechanics or weird twists on traditional elements?\ I'm going to say 2. Its not fundamentally different but it uses some things in ways that I haven't seen done before. The ability to basically teleport exactly 3 squares is neat.\ \ Scope (WARNING: Do not confuse with completeness)\ How ambitious was this project? Rich and deep content, a large featureset or even an impressive kitchen sink roster can count here. Measure what was done, not what was planned!\ It fits what I expect so 2. It has all the features of a roguelike with some things being better and some worse but overall good.\ \ Roguelike\ 7DRLs often push the bounds of the genre. As such, it is unsurprising if they push right out! Please do not consult the Berlin Interpretation - this should be about how you think the game feels rather than meeting an arbitrary checklist.\ 3 all the way. It has some things which are slightly different but it all fall sunder what I consider a roguelike.\ \ I played an hour and I enjoyed an hour. Since they match up its worth a play.\
This game revolves around 1hp mechanic. You play as a fragile piece of glass that has, however, couple almost cheating abilities. You can attack from range 2 and you can jump by 3 tiles. You can jump over wall as well! But enemies are not as fragile as you.
Rogue Pachinko
Completeness
2 - Is this game a finished piece of software? Just how polished is it, including balance and expected features?\ This I am going to rate a 2 because I have experienced some bugs. It feels complete but needs polish so things feel better.\
2 - The game works fine, but for a high score game absence of high score table is a drawback.
Aesthetics
2 - Is the game aesthetically pleasing? Are the controls easy and intuitive? As a roguelike functionality is more important than outright charm - a well laid out ASCII game can get a 3 and a messy graphical game with bad controls can get a 1.\ I am going with a 2. It has good color choice and the sound is nice. Finally the controls are space and r to restart so it works.\
2 - Sound effects are nice, there is a nice background something, but other than that it's nothing special. Escape that closes the game immediately is not the best decision possible.
Fun
2 - Is it enjoyable or compelling to play?\ It defaults to a 2. It wasn't fun necasserily but it was worth my time. I would play it again.\
2 - There is a little bit of fun there coupled with that arcadey feeling 'I can do better!'. But it would be immeasurably more fun if you could see the meaning of pins beforehand. You can then aim for potions, try to avoid stronger monsters and so on. When pins are totally random, the best course of actions is to exit level ASAP, which can be done using the wall abuse.
Innovation
2 - Does the game bring new ingredients to the table? Never before seen mechanics or weird twists on traditional elements?\ This falls into a 2. As a roguelike it would be completely new but as what it is called I can only put it down to being a new twist.\
1 - 'Rogue simulation' this game pretends to be doesn't affect gameplay. Which is bad. It's basically a decoration.
Scope
2 - How ambitious was this project? Rich and deep content, a large featureset or even an impressive kitchen sink roster can count here. Measure what was done, not what was planned!\ This gets a 2. The monsters aren't really differented in any way besides the numbers but overall it fits what I can see being done in seven days.\
2 - More or less ok for a 7drl, but on lower side of 2.
Roguelikeness
1 - 7DRLs often push the bounds of the genre. As such, it is unsurprising if they push right out! Please do not consult the Berlin Interpretation - this should be about how you think the game feels rather than meeting an arbitrary checklist.\ 1. Its not a roguelike, its a pachinko game with fantasy rpg flavored fluff. I think you might be able to fit this into a roguelike but this one didn't. A @ does not make it a roguelike.\
1 - This game is not even barely roguelike.
I did a video where I play and review of it Here:\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmMOCzpG8ZU\ If you don't want to watch the whole thing then the link below will bring you directly to the part where I go and actually review it:\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmMOCzpG8ZU&t=24m50s\ And if you really don't want to watch the video below is a good approximation of what I say
Strange pachinko game that tries to pretend to be a relative of rogue.
fivepm
Completeness
2 - * Conversations seem as if more was planned than random results based on the end-game stats.\ * Help & message display worked well.
2 - Feels complete but there is not a lot of meat on the bone.
Aesthetics
3 - * Very clean aesthetics.\ * Great colors.\ * Map's a bit small, but works alright with the solid colors.
3 - I really love the design. The colors are great and even the fonts are awesome. Controls are smooth and exactly what I would expect.
Fun
1 - * Essentially random.\ * Fun doesn't seem to be a goal of the game; still interesting for the aesthetics.
2 - It's funny, but there is not much roguelike mechanics here for people to chew on. It is worth playing through once for the one-liners.
Innovation
1 - * A stronger focus on presentation than interaction or gameplay.\ * Additional development on the conversation system would be a great way to increase the innovation!
1 - Not much, but someone please take this design and make it a proper roguelike!
Scope
1 - * Essentially an @ on fixed maps.\
2 - A bit less than what I'd expect from a usual 7drl but snappy design and polish on other aspects make it stand out.
Roguelikeness
1 - * Very basic gameplay.
2 - It's a roguelike, technically. But it is more like an @ walking around.
Strong emphasis on aesthetics and feel are the highlights. Interaction seems limited to random results; with the fixed maps, at best fivepm may be trying to say something about the superficiality of office relationships or on the need to communicate to develop social skills. Additional development could make these notions more salient.
A minimalistic roguelike that plays out using an interesting social interaction mechanic. Unfortunately it is not very deep or difficult. But it is very well designed and quite funny at times.
h@ckeRL
Completeness
2 - The game runs more or less fine, but there are a few bugs and some features are obviously missing.
1 - Has a tendency to freeze my browser (recent Firefox) and often goes into a state where you can't enter the game again when you've finished one level. Fortunately there's no progression, so that's not really a problem. I recommend running this in a separate browser instance or using Chrome.
Aesthetics
2 - Game field that looks like a hex editor is a nice touch. CPU and RAM indicators are also an interesting way to show hp. But IRC part could a little more complete and consistent.
2 - The little intro/background sequence is a quite cool idea and not at all badly done. I suspect it took more time away from working on gameplay than it should have, though. The choice of glyphs is quite thematic.
Fun
1 - The actual game is way too simple to be fun.
2 - It wouldn't be much otherwise, but oddly enough, I haven't played a lot of roguelikes with 4-way movement, and it provides a nice unusual challenge here: You can't just slip past enemies to get to your goal, you have to either face them head on or try to use the level to go around them (which might lead to running into more monsters).
Innovation
1 - While the setting is interesting, the actual gameplay brings nothing new to the table.
1 - This game's cool in that manages to be a bit more about running away from monsters than killing them than most roguelikes, but there isn't really any new gameplay here.
Scope
2 - More or less ok for a 7drl, on a weaker side.
1 - Very little interesting stuff going on here. Running files can cause some effects, but other than that, all you're doing is moving around and bumping or not bumping into things.
Roguelikeness
3 - From formal point of view this is a roguelike. But very shallow one. So it's very weak 3.
3 - Doesn't try to be anything other than a roguelike, at least within the scope that was implemented.
This game have good premise, but actual gameplay is very simple and dull. Unfortunately.
A hacking-themed Javascript game. Not very much to it once you've figured out what's going on.\ \ This is a fairly impenetrable game at first, so, here's quick guide to getting in: Once the game has finished loading, click on the tab saying something like anonymous-c15f0a6 and type in the text field the commands that it asks you to. In-game, you're looking for files (blue letters and numbers) to help you, with an eventual goal of getting to the end of the level (literally at the other end of where you started). Files are picked up by pressing x and used by pressing their number. I only found two file effects, teleportation and spawning monsters, so if a file doesn't seem to do anything, what it actually did was probably spawning. The memory graph is your HP, the CPU graph is only there for window dressing, I think.
Rushan grows stronger
Completeness
1 - Random slowdowns while moving, little feedback on abilities or items (it's unclear if I was actually using some items or if they were supposed to have passive effects, e.g., or whether or not an abilities went off). Some strange clipping on the title graphic shadows. Unclear in Rushan is actually in the game---the map is quite large and I wasn't able to find him after exploring the entire map room-to-room; alternatively, I did kill him, didn't notice, and there was no success screen.
2 - The game is insanely bugged and incomplete. Yet, with some luck you might even win it!
2 - Playable and winnable but crashy. I can't judge the crashes too harshly, though, since some of them might have been caused by playing the game on Wine. Sometimes I couldn't find the end boss, but I'm not sure whether that's caused by it actually being inaccessible or just me being deluded into thinking I'll always find it at the map's upper right corner.
Aesthetics
1 - Tiles do the job well enough, but the interface provides little feedback on items and abilities. It's a bit hard to read the console when overlaying the map, it was very easy to miss when I gained a level, and the notation on the stats wasn't clear (e.g., why is it [Agi] instead of just Agi like Str and Int?).\ \ Very nice that the keyboard labels change when switching keymaps from Dvorak to QWERTY.
2 - Nice tiles. Nice smooth movement. Nice dota-like transition from green forest to blight. But absence of any kind of tooltips or information on items and abilities is serious drawback for non-dota-aware players.
2 - Workable and sufficiently clear tileset graphics. I think there would have been sounds (assumption based on the SDL_mixer dependency), but Wine wouldn't play them. Some of the art is of course lifted from DotA.
Fun
1 - The map was very large, especially if the goal is to find someone moving around within it.
2 - It's moderately fun, especially for (ex)dota players.
2 - There's something very enjoyable about having a very steep power curve like this - on level 1 and with no items you struggle to kill two creeps in a row, on level 3 you're mowing through hordes of enemies and ready to finish the game.
Innovation
1 - Hack and slash. MOBA elements are present but not currently meaningful.
1 - If you look at it from abstract point of view - it's very generic roguelike experience. Kill monsters, gain exp, gain loot, kill boss.
1 - It's an
Scope
2 - General scope seems reasonable.
2 - I peeked at the source code, and I must say that quite a lot of work was done. Even for 2 man team.
2 - There's a reasonable set of items to be found, some different monster types, melee and ranged combat, summons, etc..
Roguelikeness
1 - If the maps are procedural, they don't really matter. More of a hack and slash currently.
3 - Yep, it's roguelike.
3 - No arguments here.
Rushan Grows Stronger is a MOBA-inspired hack and slash prototype featuring three playable characters and a large map. Like a MOBA, each character has four abilities with varying cooldowns that you can level up after killing enough minions. While the goal is to find the titular Rushan, doing so is problematic given the large map size. Abilities are represented using an icon but otherwise provide no information on what they do and may or may not provide any feedback. Could become something interesting with some more work in the future.
First of all - he is Roshan! Not Rushan! This game is roguelike demake of dota. Your aim is to kill R[ou]shan - strongest creep in Dota. Walk around, kill some creeps, pick some items, grow stronger and eventually kill the boss. That's all.
You kill a lot of small monsters and then one bigger monster in this DotA demake. Rushan, in fact, does not grow stronger at a particulary threatening rate: The algorithm to beating this game is to kill creeps, sit around waiting to heal, kill more creeps, realise once you have a few items that you are killing creeps with great ease now, and go to the boss once your six-item inventory is full. None of the items actually tell you what they do and what they're good for, but it's alright, because just having enough of them seems to make you a powerhouse anyway. You also get abilities with level-ups, and those are similarly opaque - some of them seem to be active and others passive, with the only indication of which is which being that nothing happens when you press the hotkeys for passive abilities. Fortunately, you can just open up the DotA 2 wiki, and everything I tried seems to work pretty much the same way it was explained there.
Commission Impossible
Completeness
2 - The real-time combat mode, while implemented, doesn't seem useful for anything. It needs a purpose from a gameplay perspective.
2 - The game features turn based combat and real time combat systems. \ Although, it's good that the author tried to implement both, and succeded to some extent, the real time system is very buggy.\ Features like field of view are desirable. The game has a menu: new game, continue(load), in-game instructions.\
Aesthetics
2 - Extremely simple interface.
2 - Looks ok.
Fun
1 - Not really much gameplay here. Bump into enemies until they die, or run from them and try to find the stairs instead.
1 - You progress very slowly. Killing janitors floor after floor. Guards make the game better, but still it's not very fun.
Innovation
1 - A game that combines real-time and turn-based modes could be innovative, but in this case the real-time mode doesn't serve a purpose.
1 - Hardly anything is new.
Scope
2 - Not much to do, though you can swap out your starting weapon, and maps are generated randomly. Needs more enemy types, though.
2 - Game content is quite minimal. Nevertheless, there are random levels, a few items and enemy types. Also, the game has a story, which is a plus.
Roguelikeness
2 - Too few options during play, though it does have random maps and turn-based action. With more content and a greater variety of options this could work.
2 - Formally, a roguelike, but lacks variety and tactical choices.
You play an agent who must reach the top of a building to kill the \"Big Boss.\" You spend most of the early game killing janitors, or running from them because combat is not really fun or even beneficial since fighting seems to only reward you with HP loss as much as it gives you back XP, which is the only way to regain health. The creator deserves praise for attempting a unique combination of turn-based and real-time play, and you can switch between the two at will, but the latter is not meaningful in any tactical way. Perhaps it would be better to reverse the idea and make real-time play the standard and turn-based action a sort of temporary/limited \"bullet time\". Even then the two modes would have to be further differentiated mechanically.
You play as agent Mulder, who has to kill \"Big Boss Broker\".\ \ Even though there is some potential to make this game more fun by adding new enemies and items, \ in the present form, the gameplay is very repetitive.\ \ There is no way to kill an enemy without loosing HP (until you get a pistol, and even after you have the pistol).\ Levelling is the only way to recover your HP, so, you spend your HP to gain a new level, which gives you your HP back.. \ and you repeat that cycle indefinitely.\ This feels like playing Diablo without healing potions. Although the game seems to be relatively balanced.\ \ This game features a real time combat system, in addition to the turn based one. However, the real time system does not really\ add anything to the game, and its implementation is relatively crude and incomplete. \ It seems that the author tried to ensure that the rate of attack is consistent between these two combat systems, \ which is definitely a desirable property.\ \ I cannot say that I liked the game, frankly speaking it is boring, but the author deserves some merit:\ the main game systems are in place, and something more interesting could be done with it, if more time was spent on the game design.\ The game can be improved, if the author continue working on it.
Luck of the Draw
Completeness
1 - The game is clearly incomplete and \"crashes\" often.
1 -
Aesthetics
2 - Sprites are somewhat crude, but functional.
2 -
Fun
1 - It is way too simple in it's current state.
1 -
Innovation
2 - Simultaneous planned actions is somewhat interesting idea, but unfortunately it wasn't fully implemented to have sense.
2 -
Scope
2 - It's very very very low 2. It's @ walking around, in a sense, but also with shooting.
2 -
Roguelikeness
2 - Once again, it's very low 2. There is some rudimentary tactics here, but it is implemented in rather uninspiring way.
2 -
Looks like a bare proof of concept prototype of a game where you plan up to 5 actions in advance, and then they are performed simultaneously with enemies. But there are only two actions - move and shoot.
In Luck of the Draw you play as Almighty Malachi, Professional Bowling God, in his quest to preserve the purity of the sport at a bowling convention in Texas where the attendees have deciding that piling crates on the alleys would improve the game. Well, maybe... the game isn't to clear as to why you seem to be engage in a life or death game of bombardment with bowling balls.\ \ In the game you are given 5 moves per turn, which are executed simultaneously with the opponent's moves. You can either move one to one of the adjacent 8 squares or launch an attack. Attacks seem to be relative to your original position, or maybe just very inaccurate, so it seems to be best to target adjacent squares and limit yourself to 8-direction fire.\ \ As of this review the game is barely in a playable state. It locks up regularly and requires a great amount of patience to progress. Simple scenarios like the player and an enemy attempting to enter the same square or an enemy attempting to move off the map crash the game. The game uses 2D sprites and a combination of keyboard and mouse controls, both are functional. The game is certainly unique, in my experience, as a plan-and-act 7RDL entry, and the scope of the project seems on par with other efforts. The game does have permadeath and some procedural generation, but overall it feels more like a roguelite game.
Morlock Hunter
Completeness
2 - Requiring libglfw.so.3 and 64 bit linux is a bit much to ask for casual players. But once these were installed and compiled the game works ok. The game is playable. But no loot so far. Is there a goal?
Aesthetics
2 - The playfield look like isometric tiled thing. The animation is just moving the enemies a little up/down. No sounds.\ One nice thing is that the game highlights the dots that are seen from your position. Another nice touch is the hexagonal real-time cursor to identify enemies.
Fun
1 - Very basic shoot everything that moves. Having no way to heal you and sometimes too many random enemies around you when you enter the level reduces the fun value. You just die.
Innovation
1 - Very basic shoot everything that moves. The innovation is more in the intelligent obstacle avoidance. Your player does not easily get stuck while moving fast.
Scope
2 - Quite ok for 7DRL. The only aspect is really finding long lines for shooting so that you have time to clear the area without getting hits.
Roguelikeness
2 - This is roguelike. But the character does not really evolve.
Nice hexagonal view to playfield. The player stays in the middle and the playfield moves. Actually very, very fast due to OpenGL. I also like to possibility to shoot from very long distances. The bad thing is when you get to levels with centipedes. 5 of them popping in at the same time kills you very fast. You only have 5 health points. If you get surrounded by 3 baddies it is \"game over\".
Quake RL
Completeness
2 - You can continue to explore deeper, but it seems like an endless string of the same type of dungeon. If there's an end I didn't reach it.
2 - There appears to be no win condition - going to the next level just generates a new level and resets your inventory. The map can have holes in the side you can wander out arbitrarily far. I managed to get to -60 armour some how. There are multiple weapon types, but it appears different weapon effects don't exist?
Aesthetics
3 - Uses assets from the original game, including images, textures, sfx, and music. Fairly well put together and reorganized into a top-down turn-based game with a nice Quake-like atmosphere.
1 - The skin and sound is nice. The main menu, however, has these jarring oval menu options, quite jarring when compared with the rest of the interface.\ \ Controls are painful. Quake was the FPS that drove everyone to Mouse look, so why are there no mouse controls? The main menu is only controllable with the mouse, the game only with a keyboard. Ctrl to fire is not telegraphed anywhere. Pressing control with no enemies does nothing, not letting you even experiment with keys in a safe area. I played a few times just trying to bump into enemies (Which sometimes kills them, but usually swaps place?) before I figured out the attack button. I had discounted ctrl when it did nothing in an open space. There is no key repeat that makes large rooms tedious. Auto switch of weapons seems to switch to the new weapon, not the best.\ \ The grate to go to the next level isn't at all clear what it is. I found it almost by accident, and the lack of transition could definitely make someone believe that they had just died & restarted. Where is my Kill % screen?
Fun
1 - Hackfest without any strategy required. Both the player and enemies can shoot through walls, making tactical positioning meaningless. Run until you're being shot at, then shoot until enemy dies. Being shot from outside your sight range is also not very fun, especially when you can't see the projectile. Poor dungeon generation also hampers enjoyment: You can find yourself dropped into detached rooms with no way out, and there are even parts of the map where you can leave the visible area of the screen.
1 - This could have been much better. I don't mind the walls not blocking LOS, that can be quite cool. But not blocking line of fire is quite deadly. Carrying your equipment to the next level and adding a level counter would together both give something to strive for, and a way to run out of resources and die. Currently it feels like a fresh game each level, so there is no sense of success in chaining together victories.
Innovation
1 - Generic turn-based FPS. It's been done better before.
1 - It is very ambitious to make a QuakeRL when DoomRL did such an amazing job. Unfortunately, not enough gameplay was done to be able to start to address what would move this to that level.
Scope
2 - Standard 7DRL.
1 - Pretty much an @ on a map when you remove the textures/sound
Roguelikeness
3 - Turn-based gameplay on randomly generated maps; find inventory items; etc. It's all there.
2 - Single modal interface, random maps, permadeath, sure. However, there is no tactical combat. With shots not blocked by walls, nor any LOS, and with ranged combat making it just a you-shoot, I-shoot combat, gameplay is reduced to naught.
Turn-based top-down version of Quake with a nice atmosphere thanks to using assets from the original game. All combat is ranged. Find a rocket launcher, shotgun, etc. and kill enemies as you explore deeper. Unfortunately there are many gameplay problems with QuakeRL as is, so I'd pass on this game until the creator fixes up some of the issues to make it more fun.
QuakeRL is a top-down dungeon crawler skinned with Quake textures, sounds, and music. It is worth a few moments of nostalgia, but sadly does not provide enough gameplay to compel.
Salvage
Completeness
1 - The game is kind of complete. But the instructions are missing and the feedback from your actions is not always obvious. Moving around the spacecraft and opening and closing doors works well. I really don't know what the objective of the game is. Just collecting parts forever? Or do you actually win it?
1 - The interface suggests salvage can be unselected, but that doesn't appear to always be the case. Actions will queue up, so clicking/tapping more than once can be disastrous. You'll often find yourself occupying the same space as an enemy. Overall the game feels incomplete.
Aesthetics
2 - The graphics and sounds are nice as well as the sounds. The controls are intuitive (click with your mouse).
1 - The controls are kind of flaky, sometimes unsure if I want to select an item to salvage or move to the item's position. The screen bobs around as the character moves, making it easy to misclick/mistap, especially if you want to cancel the current action.
Fun
2 - The game is worth playing - a few times at least. But not a game I would go back to.
1 - There's not much to this one. What *is* there doesn't feel balanced.
Innovation
1 - I really don't know what the point of the game is. Collecting loot?
2 - The game mechanic that sets this game apart is the gathering of salvage, but the game isn't complete enough to decide if this is a worthwhile mechanic.
Scope
2 - The game appears to be working but not polished.
1 - I expect to see more than this from a 7DRL. This seems like an afternoon's worth of effort.
Roguelikeness
3 - Yes, it is roguelike. Except that your character does not \"grow\" during gameplay.
3 - Clearly a roguelike.
Strip the other ships for parts before the space police comes or you will have a fight. Well, you do have a fight immediately when you start gathering loot. The \"helpers\" seem to lead their own life and the game mechanism is not obvious. Sometime you select something and sometime you move on top of it.
There were no instructions so it took a couple of games to guess what's going on. You're on some kind of space ship with two other friendlies ready to follow your commands. You direct them to collect salvage while protecting them from enemies (the real owners of the ship?). The salvage collected is your score.\ \ There are three different ship sizes to choose from. This sets the size of the map, but also, in my experience, this also determines the difficulty of the game. Large ships will bring many more enemies at once.\ \ Since it seems enemies can spawn in any place at any time, a lot of the game's potential strategy is lost. I can't really clear out an area for the salvage crew and let them get to work. If the salvage crew splits up too much, there's no way to protect them.\ \ Overall the game seems incomplete. There are one or two new ideas here, but they haven't actually been realized into a playable game.\
The Way of The Warrior (working name: Stubborn Warriors)
Completeness
3 - It's complete, yet very small, game.
2 - Since the scope of the game was small and focused, and according to the creator the gameplay was done in one day and the rest of the days were used for polish and refactoring, the end result is understandably nice and smooth. The only bug I encountered was one where the Archer was able to fire their arrow and the Mage cast their spell even after dying, which unfortunately allowed me to pass levels when I shouldn't've. Also, I was able to get to level 20 by just jumping over enemies - there should definitely be a limit to the amount of jumps a player can make.\
Aesthetics
2 - Stylized oldschool text. Looks ok, but nothing special.
2 - No problems with the controls and the layout is clear and the minimalist graphics are delightful.
Fun
1 - Unlimited jump ruins the fun. The choice of lanes is almost always very simple. And both the bow and the magic feels useless.
2 - Overall the gameplay is surprisingly good fun for a while as monsters grow tougher as long as you don't spam the jump. Glad to have played it.
Innovation
1 - There are at least several flash games that implement similar mechanics (in a better way).
2 - Stripping down roguelike mechanics to movement along a path and making it fun is an impressive feat.
Scope
1 - There is barely any content in the game as well as there is very little game in the game.
1 - Despite the neat twist I couldn't shake the feeling that this was perhaps a little narrow overall, maybe better suited for a 1 day jam. Or that more could have been done mechanics-wise in seven days.
Roguelikeness
1 - I don't smell even faint odor of roguelikeness here.
2 - Clearly feels like a roguelike to an extent with randomised levels, characters and character development, item use, senseless slaughter of poor monsters. Does understandably lack the depth of wider efforts.
Move group of warriors from the left side of screen to the right, each on his own lane, chosen at start. Party moves simultaneously. And jumps, if ordered, simultaneously. Archer can use bows, monk can use magic, both of which are picked from the lane.
A neat little game where a troupe of three heroes, a Fighter, an Archer and a Mage (true to the title) travel down a path just wide enough to accommodate them, encountering monsters and loot on their way, all taking one step forwards or one step back in lockstep. Each 42 steps the player needs to reassign which path the heroes are on to best defeat the monsters ahead and pick up the class-appropriate items. The archer can pick up the occasional single-shot bow, and the mage will find use for spells on his path. Even getting one hero to the end of a screen is sufficient to carry on because if enough gold has been amassed, the fallen heroes are automatically resurrected. Apart from moving forwards and back, the player can choose to jump all the heroes over one tile, which creates opportunities for some more tradeoffs (although jumping is a bit overpowered). All-told, a pretty successful minimalist roguelike - well worth a try for a bit of fun. Could conceivably be extended with more traditional roguelike mechanics going forwards.
Third Planet
Completeness
3 - No bugs or crashes that I've seen.
Aesthetics
2 - The visuals aren't pretty but they're graphical, clear and easy to distinguish. Controls are very simple and intuitive except for the weird turning method.
Fun
1 - Fun is conspicuously absent. Gameplay that is shallow and very repetitive, alleviated only by infuriating design choices. Nothing wrong with the basic premise or necessarily the way it plays but it needs a lot more work to be enjoyable.
Innovation
1 - Find a thing. Return. Meh.
Scope
1 - Visually not just an @ on a map but not much more, gameplay-wise.
Roguelikeness
2 - Turn-based and procedural, but doesn't feel that roguelikey in other respects. Middle of the road.
You control a little jet-like spacecraft and you leave your base ship to find a beacon so that the base ship can jump to the next stage of its journey. Some form of hostile mothership and its attendant fighters try to stop you. In practice, this means you get a direction (northwest or northeast, I’ve never seen any others) and you head that way to find the beacon. When you find it (and once you’ve figured out what it is, because the game gives no indication of what a beacon looks like) you turn round and go back to the base ship, at which point you go to the next level and start again. The process is the same every time. Obstructing you are alien craft, asteroids and clouds of some sort that impede your vision. The main obstruction, though, is the controls. Turning takes you in a weird loop (e.g. when you turn right you move forward and right) which is probably meant to represent the momentum of a moving vehicle but in practice it means that you can’t steer with any precision, which gets you killed unacceptably often any time there are lots of asteroids around (which is most of the time). You just can’t manoeuvre around all the flying rocks because of this strange steering design. Worse yet is when you’re being chased by an enemy. When chasing, they move in to fly in a straight line behind you, but you turn in a loop, so however much you turn and turn and turn, you can never come round to face them so you can shoot. The only way to break this situation is to accelerate away using E, but you can only do this a couple of times before you need to recharge, so it doesn’t benefit you much unless you accelerate into a cloud, where the enemy loses sight of you. Surviving enemy attacks is so dependent on this specific set of circumstances that the whole thing feels like purely a game of chance. The procedural aspect is also a pain; sometimes you will enter a level and find that one or more asteroids are immediately beside your starting position and heading your way. There’s no way to survive that. Even without these flaws, the game would be a tedious exercise in ‘go over there, come back’. The design problems are the only thing that keeps it interesting, but not in a fun way. Skip it unless a lot more work is done to vary the gameplay from level to level, make enemy interaction more manageable, and prevent starting point death by random asteroid.
Tower of Friendship
Completeness
1 -
Aesthetics
2 -
Fun
2 - I think that if I had a chance to play more of the game I could have given a higher score here. Once I failed on the first floor and tried again, I got very interested to see how the game would end up. So much potential
Innovation
3 - It is great to see people using Twine to make interesting games
Scope
1 -
Roguelikeness
1 - I can't find a good way to classify this as a roguelike.
I was very excited to try out each floor of the game. Twine games can be much more than just reading a story and the developer started with a great sytem for creating a compelling game. Sadly, the game was incomplete.
Brace for Impact
Completeness
2 - No bugs, but not polished either. What does the Hyperdrive do? Are bitcoins just score, or can I buy anything?
3 -
1 - No feedback for melee attacks and certain other important events. I think you can only fight ships and boarding parties until you're defeated.
Aesthetics
1 - I like how the rooms have inner structure (contrary to FTL), although I think it could be made to look better by changing the symbols, or by using more different symbols. But it could be easily improved, so that it looks like a spaceship, not a collection of squares. It is also not clear which module does what (maybe display the name of the module the Commander is in below the map, and also display some letters on the map). Why use the same color for phasers and monsters?\
2 -
2 - Movement-only is pretty simple to grasp, even with no command list. Boxed sections of the screen and color-coded sections of the ship look fine.
Fun
1 - No reason to play this game in its current state.
2 -
1 - This could become a very fun game, but the content just isn't there yet.
Innovation
1 - No innovation.\
2 -
2 - Being able to jump to the next encounter is interesting. The phase system might be interesting too, but it's not really relevant yet.
Scope
1 - Walk around the ship, fight monsters, fight ships.
2 -
2 - The enemy ship combat is functional, which is probably enough for a 2 here.
Roguelikeness
2 - Too simple for a 3 in Roguelikeness. Also, why PC makes 6 moves, then monsters make 2 moves? This looks like some Action Point-based tactics, which is not typical for a roguelike.\
1 -
2 - The ship layout is static, and there's not really anything to explore, but the combat is fairly roguelike.
You are a Commander on his ship. After each jump, your ship can get into a battle with an enemy ship (which is resolved automatically -- other than you can manually improve your shields -- and as far as I can tell you have to be really unlucky and uncaring to lose), and a boarding party can board (which is similar to a typical simple roguelike, but movement seems AP-based).\ \ Maybe it could evolve into an interesting game in the future, but for now, I think there is no reason to play it.\
You're the sole crew member of a spacecraft and must fend off random encounters each time you jump to a new region. Reminiscent of a simplified FTL. You only ever see the inside of your ship and move around in that enclosed environment. ASCII aesthetic isn’t bad, colour coded rooms for easy identification of their function. The only interactive features are control panels, represented effectively by use of + symbols. Strange but interesting round/phase system (5 moves in a phase, 7 phases in a round) has clearly had thought put into it. A bit clunky, and very confusing at first even with the Read Me, but novel and interesting for such a short development time. Game gets very repetitive very quickly - 2 types of encounter: enemy ship (switch on systems for auto combat) or boarding party (kill boarders then auto ship combat). Impressive creating streamlined FTL-like in a week, esp. with detailed turn system, but gets boring quickly and doesn't have much roguelike in it.
Brace for Impact is a game where you move around your spaceship, activating consoles to trigger their effects (like activating weapons systems, providing you with armor, jumping to the next encounter, or supplying power to other systems), and fighting off enemies that board the ship. It has a novel phase & movement point system for turns. Unfortunately, the game gets repetitive quickly: If an enemy ship appears, you turn on the power and then the weapons, and wait until the enemy ship is destroyed. If an enemy boards the ship, you might try to upgrade your armor, and then you fight it. With more content, this game could be pretty cool.
DartRL
Completeness
1 - No serious bugs beyond a poor line of sight implementation (should have just stuck to simple full circle FOV or Rogue-style separate room and corridor rules for FOV). Feels like it's seriously lacking on intended content though, and every element of the game is lacking polish.
2 - Is missing features that would make it feel more like a fun game, but didn't crash and there is reasonable polish. Worked perfectly well on a browser.
Aesthetics
1 - The base graphics are fine (isometric is nice) but using exclusively 7913 for 4-way movement is a bit nuts - the big pluses of 4-way movement is so WASD and arrow keys can work on laptops! I guess at least it's not vi-keys... ;) The shooting ui is really awkwardly done. You have to press * to cycle through targets, and the target you want (the closest) is always the last option. f should just auto-fire at nearest without asking for a target.
2 - The isometric engine is fairly impressive, particularly in making corridor walls transparent where appropriate. Only being able to move in four directions feels more like a limitation than a feature and the targeting system currently works by cycling through all visible enemies, which works fine when only a handful of foes are visible but is quite arduous when you encounter rooms chock-full of green beasts. Auspicious beginnings for an engine though. I did encounter some oddness such as darts flying backwards when flying to the right of the character and there seemed to be a little blind spot in the FOV. I also appreciated the coherence between the title, the programming language and the gameplay - Dart being the connecting factor of course.
Fun
1 - The base gameplay is pretty bland. The smoke darts would be interesting if there was a need to them. As it stands the enemies are too simplistic. The levels are also far far far too big, leading to a lot of boring wandering around.
1 - As it stands the gameplay unfortunately consists solely in avoiding/shooting one type of monster as you travel the rooms and corridors looking for stairs. Only having one 1HP does add to the tension nicely, though. I didn't make it out of the dungeon despite many attempts. I would come back to this if the range of tactical options is increased.
Innovation
1 - No new mechanics in the game.
1 - The basic premise of taking control of the hero on the way back up from having found the object they were looking for is refreshing but doesn't (yet) amount to more than trawling through unknown dungeons fighting beasties. A minor thematic gripe I had was that if the hero has traveled all the way to the bottom of the dungeon, why doesn't s/he remember the way back, or anything else about the dungeon? The one innovative gameplay element is the smelly smoke arrow which allows the player to escape from many a tight spot. Nothing feels groundbreaking, but it would be very cool to see the premise extended.
Scope
2 - Very low scope, though including 2 attack options is a nice bonus.
2 - I might've expected more features overall, but since it seems that the engine was created from scratch for the 7drl, I'd classify this as a solid, ambitious achievement in seven days. Gameplay overall feels nonetheless a bit too limited and many features such as inventory, leveling, spells are absent and could really enrich the experience.
Roguelikeness
3 - Has all the basic elements, though lacks much in the way of tactical depth.
2 - A bit too straightforward at this point to warrant full points, but the elements that are present definitely feel roguelike.
A roguelike written in Dart where you fire darts at enemies! I'm guessing writing an engine mostly from scratch took up most of the week, as there isn't much in the way of a game here unfortunately. Wander round, kill enemies, die to keyboard fudges.
You've found the ultimate object of your epic quest, and now it's time to dart back to the surface. You need to keep the green enemy hordes at an arm's length by throwing darts at them, since a single touch can kill you.\ \ An isometric take on a nicely inverted roguelike premise and a commendable coherence between theme, programming language and gameplay, which nonetheless doesn't (yet) grant a lot of fun. What content the game has so far works well, but I'd like to see this engine taken further still. With some more work, I could see this as a fun, casual tactical game for a mobile platform for instance. Also the idea of a hero needing to make their way back from the bottom of the dungeon is delightful and worth exploring further.\
7DArrrL
Completeness
1 - Feels very incomplete in terms of game features and balance. No noticeable bugs though.
2 - Nothing broke that looked like it obviously should have worked.
3 - I didn't run into any bugs. I'd really like a quick way to restart after dying (because you will die often).
Aesthetics
1 - Pretty graphics, but the controls are just horrible. Trying to get a proper view around your ship is a pain, steering feels unresponsive and unintuitive, and assigning crew to different areas is a chore (would be much easier with far less crew and just dragging them between systems).
2 - Day and night pass and sunlight subtly shades the sails, the ship travels across waves, you can even hear the sound of the sea. Nothing stands out as unusually beautiful, though. The explosion sounds made my speakers crackle pretty badly, but then they are pretty bad speakers.
3 - Zoom the camera in to hear the ocean waves. Watch the sun set while you track down your prey. Overall, it's a really nice, if barebones experience. I wasn't a big fan of the \"argh\" sound clip played when a ship is hit. The controls are a bit confusing, but in fact they're pretty easy to use after some experience. I didn't understand at first that QWES was just as effective as the ship's wheel. Camera controls work fine. I wish there was an easier way to quickly assign crew members.
Fun
1 - It's too unbalanced at the moment to really enjoy.
1 - Even the provided buttons for compressing time make it very difficult to make the game nicely paced. At worst you can sail for a while, only seeing other ships in the horizon, even at maximum compression. I also experienced the opposite, not noticing another ship was near and having it pass and broadside me before I could react.
1 - The insane difficulty makes it hard to enjoy. You'll probably spend a good 15 minutes before you figure out how to take down your first opponent. Then after you do, there's no replayability.
Innovation
1 - It's a fairly base game at the moment.
2 - It's nothing particularly new overall, but a naval warfare sim is definitely not the first thing that would come to mind when you mention 7DRL.
2 - A sailing roguelike. I love the concept, but wish there was more.
Scope
2 - Reasonable amount done for 7 days, but perhaps in the wrong areas! An ASCII implementation of Sid Meier's Pirates would have been much preferred ;)
1 - Not a big game.
1 - What you start out with is what you get. An infinite sea doesn't help much.
Roguelikeness
1 - No roguelike elements present in the current implementation.
1 - Intended by author to be made into something more roguelike, but circumstances happened.
2 - Lots of permadeath. It can be played real time, but time controls (e.g. pausing) are built in.
Yarr, matey! Lovely name for the game, but unfortunately it's really missing meat on its salty bones. You sail a ship around an ocean and run into other ships which you can fight. These ships are all equal to your apart from their AI, which is vastly superior to you at managing the steering and weapons, leaving you dead very soon. There's no terrain and little in the way of tactics (all decisions are obvious) so from a gameplay perspective it's really missing a lot to make it a compelling play. I struggled hard with the controls too - perhaps I'm too much of a dirty landlubber? It looks very pretty, and perhaps something can be built on this, but it needs a lot of work.
You sail a pirate ship and hunt down merchants carrying loot that's just meant for you to plunder, trying to sail with the wind and adjust your sails so that your cannons sink the other ship before theirs do yours. Unfortunately these merchants happen to be exactly as well-armed as you, and seasoned sailors to boot, which makes it a very difficult affair to take down even one - I never managed it.\ \ You can assign your men to different tasks (repair duty, sails, and port and starboard cannons), to which they will get to quite speedily. You take damage from enemy cannons both in lost crew and in hull damage, but start with more than enough men that chances are you will sink long before that's a problem. You can try to run away from a fight for repairs, but the one time I tried that, every ship on the map ended up on my tail, so it's probably not much more conducive to long-term survival than a more head-on approach.\ \ The game is real-time, but pausable and speedupable. The controls are simple enough but bit difficult to get used to, as for some reason the camera controls work opposite to the helm. There's also no option that I could find to lock the camera to the ship's angle, which probably would have helped figure out directions in fights.
7DArrrL is a 3D pirate game with an emphasis on sailing. The graphics are minimal, but have a cool cel shaded look and details like the ship's wheel are nice touches. The strategy comes mostly in mastering the insanely difficult sailing aspect and assigning crew members to four areas: ship regen, sailing, and port and starboard cannons. This game feels incomplete, but what's there is rather promising.
KKDKDLRL
Completeness
2 - There are a few bugs here and there.
3 - It seems to be a complete bug-free game.
3 - The game feels complete and sufficiently hard. The start of the game is a little hard getting off your feet, then the middle game feels simpler, until the strategy you’ve adopted successfully for several turns suddenly isn’t working any more and a lemur of level 9 sweeps in and gets away with your precious artifact. I struggled a bit to figure out the controls at first, and felt the information a little lacking to completely understand my options and their consequences, but I find enough game in here to award a 3. I’m not sure if this game had a win condition, or if the lemurs would have leveled up endlessly.
Aesthetics
2 - UI numbers require some explanation. In normal speed I would like to see more detailed animation/information about what's going on. An option to rebuild what was broken on last attack would be of help too.
1 - Browser based form game with simple buttons and sprites.
2 - The tiles used are decent, and the mouse-driven controls are intuitive enough that you figure them out after a little while, but nothing new or exciting about the visuals. They’re good enough to portray the game properly though, you understand what’s going on.
Fun
1 - It could be much more fun, but balance is so broken, that it kills any rudiments of fun.
1 - It's difficult to understand the balance between all the variables presented, which is fine if there's a fun way to gradually learn them. But there isn't. Needs to more gradually introduce the relationships between the mechanics, or explain them in more detail.
2 - There is some fun to be found in this game. Once I figured out how to play the game, placing traps and trying to optimize my resources to trap and take out the lemurs was a fun endeavor, but fun in the tower defense sense, not the roguelike sense.
Innovation
1 - Nothing new here.
2 - I'm not too familiar with the tower defense genre, but maybe it's somewhat unique that you both build your own dungeon and have to manage other resources via sliders that affect your overall performance.
1 - This is pretty much your standard tower defense game, but where you can play around with placing rooms/corridors and manage resource type priorities, but I didn’t find anything new in here.
Scope
2 - It's a little more then technodemo. Probably ok for a 7drl.
1 - Seems like the game should be improved in one area or another to be up to normal 7DRL scope, either in terms of content or aesthetics.
1 - Even though what’s in here works, the scope of this game is rather small.
Roguelikeness
1 - It's anything, but roguelike.
1 - This is a tower defense game. Nothing roguelike about it.
1 - I struggled to find the roguelikeness in this game, and I tried really hard to find it. If the dungeons were randomly generated, that might have rewarded a 2 here.
Extend the dungeon with hallways and rooms, place the artifact, place some traps and hope they will stop attackers. Repeat. You can also hire miners to mine gold, build farms to feed workers and monsters. But the balance is not there.
Warning: Not a roguelike. This is a pretty typical tower defense game, although I suppose the roguelike influence here might be that you build and expand your own dungeon rather than defend a premade static one? You must place an artifact in the dungeon that enemy lemurs are trying to steal, and you defend it with dinosaurs (though for some reason the weakest and strongest ones are actually rabbits). Place traps and defenders while managing resources including gold and food.
KKDKDLRL is a tower defense game, and not very roguelike. What is in here though works and feels sufficiently balanced to be enjoyed for a short session of tower defense gameplay. You manage your resources between placing rooms/corridors, buying traps and monsters, and then set up the priorities for what you want to gain next turn through labor, gold and food balance meters.
Colosseum of Rogues (COMPLETE!)
Completeness
2 - There didn't seem to be any bugs really, nothing I could find, but it is hard to know if the mechanics were working correctly or not.
2 - The game runs fine, but feels somewhat incomplete. There are no instructions at all. I don't really know if what happening is how it should be or a bug.
1 - Doesn't visually update until you press a key. Window is too small until you drag it. Rising Dragon is way too good.
Aesthetics
1 - I hate to give a 1, but this game was hard to see because of how the window would scroll down. I had to do some resizing. Also the arena seemed to have a jagged outline that seemed an odd choice, maybe i was a bug? Other than that it was just black and white ASCII. Note I have given black and white ASCII a 3 before, but how it was all set up here just detracted from the game. Without the window sizing issues I'd have gone for a 2, or if the moves were listed on the side of the arena and the message system below so it's not all stacked on top of each other.
2 - The game runs in console, so it looks like ... console game! But controls are weak point here. 'Press any key to continue' often requires more then one press of a key. You have to target your abilities each time you use them, despite the fact that there is only one opponent. It's more or less obvious that default target should be him!
1 - Visibility bugs make the arena look strange. Controls are decent enough. Very little color use.
Fun
1 - I'm sorry to the developer I just didn't have much fun with this. Again I hate giving out a 1, but spamming the same move for an easy victory was not so fun. Maybe this is more of a sandbox where you can try different moves and such. I tried that, tried all the moves. Ran around the arena. The bad guys barely moved or attacked or did much of anything. I tried just bumping into them over and over and lost a round...I really tried to have fun but just didn't.
1 - Probably with proper instructions and/or bugfixes it could be fun, but as it is it's boring.
1 - Reading the help and the attack stats makes the ideas behind this game sound like fun. Unfortunately, the ideas don't come through in the gameplay.
Innovation
2 - I found the concepts here decently innovative. If executed I would have given a 3 here. Lots of cool concepts. I've never seen fighting game sensibilities done in a turn based top down format like this. Bravo.
1 - I don't see anything new here.
3 - Uses startup and recovery times like other fighting games. With better balance and UI feedback, this could be a cool topdown tactical Street Fighter sort of game.
Scope
2 - This is a tough one to score. Scope of the plan was pretty high, scope of what was produced seems much less.
1 - There is barely any content beside @ walking on a claustrophobically small arena.
2 - Feels like a 7DRL.
Roguelikeness
2 - I was tempted to give a 1 here but when I stepped back and thought about it a 1 might be unfair. This game was turn based and it was ASCII. It also had permafailure. All of these are classic roguelike elements, though the ASCII element has become purely optional nowadays. There was also resource management but it didn't seem well executed in practice. \ \ The issue here is that it doesn't really scratch that Roguelike itch. That interplay between procedural generation and permadeath. I want something truly new to play each time, a new challenge, however slightly different, in each play. There didn't seem to be that here, but there was enough of a genre nod that I'll go with a 2.
1 - Yes, it's ascii, turn based. But it's simple arena combat. There are no items. No character progression. No procedural generation.
1 - Despite the ASCII display, I'm not sure there is any randomness here.
Here is a game where the premise is that of the combat arena. It starts you out in smallish space and you do battle with whatever baddie happens to be in there. I like the premise. You could do a TON with it, but here the execution is tough to get into. I beat all 8 bad guys, beating the game just spamming one move over and over again. The enemy never moved, never attacked, I just beat them all without being hit.\ \ Despite this lack of any challenge or strategy there are quite a few things to like here. I like the interface, using the number key to choose an ability and attack the bad guy. There are some interesting duel mechanics with recovery and what not that didn't seem to be implemented, but the help menu lists them. There are lots of moves you can do as well but none of them seemed necessary to win.
Turn based 1 vs 1 arena combat. There seems to be some kind of complicated combat mechanic. But in the end you can simply spam one ability from afar, keeping your opponent in a block lock. When I tried to use other moves, I was loosing quickly.
Colosseum of Rogues is a top-down interpretation of fighting game mechanics: Light, medium, heavy, and EX versions of moves, blocking, and super moves, all of which have startup and recovery times. The game has problems, though, especially in UI display and game balance, which keep it from living up to the potential of its concept.
MOV [title] \"Cyber\" JMP Quest
Completeness
1 - The game crashed on me several times. That's a pretty big minus off the bat. The menu that displays your party's stats lists HP twice for each character(I believe the second one is supposed to be MP) and neither decreased decreased as I took damage and used special attacks. Sometimes battle options would turn red, so MP seemed to be functioning, but even when tried to die in battle I didn't seem to be losing health.
1 -
Aesthetics
1 - The abrasive green fits thematically, but wears on your eyes. The line that constantly moves down the screen is another nice idea, but grows old quick. The ghosting effect when characters move is pretty cool. There really no detail to the map, just empty space, walls, doors and NPCs. Battle text scrolls so quick I often missed the result of my attacks. There are some good ideas but they're not tempered by playability.
1 - It is very difficult to make the old, green-and-black style work with games.
Fun
1 - Since I couldn't seem to die there really was no challenge. Also the game would crash before I could really make any progress. I really wanted to try out all the different attacks, but all of the issues with the game made me lose interest pretty quickly. Also, the alphabetical menu selections does not work well in practice. At the very least cancel /back should always be the same character.
2 -
Innovation
1 - This game didn't really do anything to integrate JRPG and rougelike mechanics. There may have been some good ideas with the variety of special attacks, but I couldn't experience them.
2 -
Scope
2 - There seems to be lots of enemy types, and lots of special attacks. I only found a single additional party member, but there's room on the menu for several more. Definitely aimed pretty high, and got a lot of the framework in place.
2 -
Roguelikeness
1 - It looks like a roguelike but doesn't play like one. Party combat. Battle screen. No field of vision. No hunger mechanic. Really other than the player @ and the dungeon layout there's little to make this a roguelike.
3 -
I was intrigued by the idea of blending JRPG and roguelike mechanics, but the game feels very unfinished.
The idea of mixing JRPG style combat with a roguelike piqued my interest. It is an interesting way to remove the monotany of \"bumping into things\" and the implementation in this game wasn't bad. The problem with the system was that it became a bit monotanous itself. The first enemy I encountered took five or six attacks and the damage that I did seemed very random. \ \ As far as the look of the game, it was very difficult to understand some parts because of overlapping text and the very bright green. That color scheme can work in a sort of nostalgic way, but it needs more attention to detail so it doesn't detract from the game. In this case, I think it did detract from the game.\ \ This did feel like a roguelike that had JRPG style combat, and I believe that was the goal, so that is a success. Doing this in seven days must have been a challenge. \ \ I think there is potential to make an interesting, short roguelike to try new things, but it didn't feel like a complete, well-designed game. It can with a bit of work.
Shaken, not stirred
Completeness
2 - The game is complete and playable and winnable. Could do with making the mechanics more obvious, especially the progression and how the bio-map thing operates. These things should be clear in the game.
Aesthetics
2 - Cool Atari theme. Controls are clunky, but considering the Atari Lynx restriction not too bad.
Fun
1 - The gameplay is fairly repetitive with few options ever presented.
Innovation
1 - No real depth of play to bring innovation to the table.
Scope
2 - A small game but not completely lacking on different elements.
Roguelikeness
1 - Completely outside the roguelike zone. It has some randomness and permadeath, but this is done in an arcade-y fashion. There are no interesting tactics, combat is twitchy and execution based with a heavy real-time element (not so much the clock on the side as the real-time enemies shooting at you). The only combat option other than direct shooting is TNT, which is a very limited resource and fairly ineffective. Play is split between different screens, feeling disjointed, with no mechanics tying the areas together.
I got very excited when I saw this was an Atari Lynx game (download the Handy emulator if you want to play it), and even more excited when I heard the awesome 8-bit Axel theme and saw the 8-bit graphics style. Unfortunately this game really wasn't for me. In general the game is quite obtuse and hard to understand, with many completely opaque mechanics. Even after learning the lay of the game it is very repetitive, and involves almost no real decision-making. The main gameplay is moving a targeting cursor towards enemies so you can hold down a button to shoot them whilst they shoot you in real time - a very simple execution challenge with no tactical depth.\ \ I want to see an Atari Lynx roguelike :( Karri, please make something turn-based and grid-based with interesting tactical options!
SoulsRL
Completeness
1 -
1 - I do not see any bugs, but it seems unbalanced, and the game is not explained.
1 - SoulsRL does not look complete. The skills work is a rather unexpected way (blink, for instance, kills everyone around you),\ it is not clear what the goals is, and how it should be achieved. The worst thing is that the game seems to be heavily unbalanced. Which is unfortunate, considering that the main game concept is rather interesting.
Aesthetics
1 -
1 - Extremely cumbersome interface. Right click to move, arrows in menus, QWER to use abilities?
2 - Looks ok, probably thanks to libtcod. Controls are awkward. You have to use both mouse and keyboard to apply skills. Movement is mouse only. In my opinion, considering that the font is tiny, full keyboard controls are desirable, or at least the tile under the mouse could be highlighted (for example, see 2014-7DRL The Hunt).
Fun
1 -
1 - No fun for me.
2 - There is some gameplay going on. Although, no matter what you do, you will enjoy painful death eventually, stormed by black turrets. You have several skills to try, although all of them are kind of similar.\
Innovation
1 -
1 - I see no interesting innovation.
2 - The combination of mass attack abilities, and the need to kill less to survive is kind of interesting.
Scope
2 -
2 - Four abilities, many kinds of monsters, inventory (health potions), main quest.
1 - There are generic mobs, not so complex skill system, some items, and your minions fighting the mobs. Although it might sound like a lot of content, all of this does not really give any depth to the game. Also, the mobs are very primitive (cannot walk around obstacles), and the environment is very simplistic (if there is some procedural generation, it is not very complex).\ Maybe, 1.5 would be are a more fair score for the scope, but I have already given some extra credit for Aesthetics, Fun, and Innovation.
Roguelikeness
2 -
2 - Roguelike enough for a 2.
3 - Roguelike. But, as far as I can tell, the game lacks procedural generation.
* Incomplete documentation (i for inventory to drink at least; is there some way to restart games? Exit from within the game?)\ * Controls are awkward. Small tiles + precision clicking for movement or items is difficult on trackpads.\ * How are abilities cancelled?\ * Some typos and grammar errors.\ * Abilities seem unbalanced.\ * Not quite sure how either theme (DarkSouls or MOBAs) fit in with the game other than the QWER abilities and something called minions.\ * Could be a good foundation for more development.\
In this game, you can move (right-click), and you can use several special abilities, like stun (attack any monster in range) or blink (teleport to another place, killing all monsters in range, and draining your health). The \"blink\" ability allows me to kill enemies very quickly, but this causes lots of new enemies to suddenly swarm me, I can blink again and kill them, but again, new enemies appear, and finally I am dead after several iterations of this process. I think the game is not interesting in its current state.\
While playing this game, I felt like I am a loner with mass murderer attitudes. In this game, killing mobs spawns more mobs. So, you try to avoid them altogether. But because all enemies beeline towards you and they are quicker than you (why?), you have to use you skills to eliminate those who approach..\ This spawns more mobs, and eventually a dosen of black turrets instakills you.\ \ To the developer: Whenever you add an enemy that is hard to deal with, also add a way to fight against it. Make the player strong enough to kill them (with brute force, or using the environment for player's advantage), or make the player able to outrun them (as a permanent or temporary ability).\ \ Somehow, it is not entirely unfun, and, in fact, it is relatively enjoyable, once you get used to the controls. But the game is severely unbalanced and(or) incomplete.
Space Junk Settler
Completeness
2 - This is working prototype that lacks polish and actual game.
Aesthetics
2 - Controls and instructions are a little confusing, but once you understand them, they work pretty well.
Fun
1 - The game way too unbalanced and way too simple to be fun.
Innovation
2 - Yet another attempt to mix realtime and turnbased gameplays. More or less successful.
Scope
1 - @ in form of an astronaut on a map, which is an asteroid field.
Roguelikeness
1 - I don't think this game is related to roguelikes in any way. At least in this form when there is no actual gameplay.
This entry is a prototype of crossbreed of turn based gameplay and realtime physics simulation. When you click simulation is paused and you can make your turn, which resumes simulation. The game is set in space. You control direction and strength of your jetpack's bursts and can push off nearby asteroids. There are fuel cells scattered around to pick up.
Legend of Tower
Completeness
1 -
2 - Visually seems complete but I'm not sure how much of that is just Unity. Lacks instructions and crashed my browser tab a few times.
1 - Within about 15 seconds of starting the game the first time around I had leapt out of the map and was plummeting through space. The second time around, Unity slowed down and crashed after about 10 minutes. None of the enemies move or do anything other than stand on the spot and dance. There is no game here.
Aesthetics
2 -
3 - I dig the art style. Controls are a bit confusing at first but I like the hold-to-drop function. Level layout is great. Is it random?
2 - The sprites are fairly crude and MS-Paint-y, but they do have some charm to them and their animations are quite nice. Mostly it's pretty ugly, though - trees are just boxes with pictures of trees on the side, text decals are visible through walls and new areas suddenly pop into existance when you get within two feet of them.
Fun
2 -
1 - Unfortunately it's not very fun.
1 - There is not really any gameplay here to review. Monsters don't move or attack you, all you can do is wander about aimlessly. I did actually quite enjoy finding different ways to jump out of the map, but I don't think I can really give points for that.
Innovation
1 -
1 - Unity lets you do the hard stuff easily but it still needs some beefy gameness underneath it.
1 - Nope.
Scope
1 -
2 - About what I'd expect from a 7drl.
1 - There are a fairly impressive number of animated sprites dotted around and there are multiple themed areas... but nothing to actually do.
Roguelikeness
2 -
2 - Not really a roguelike? But it's in a dungeon and it has swords.
1 - Not even a game, so no.
I did a video where I play and review of it Here:\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV3BZlFgjtE\ If you don't want to watch the whole thing then the link below will bring you directly to the part where I go and actually review it:\ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV3BZlFgjtE&t=9m51s\ And if you really don't want to watch the video here is a good approximation of what I say:\ \ Completeness\ It gets a 1. It's not a finished piece of software. There is content missing, and what seems like a serious memory leak that limited my ability to play it.\ \ Aesthetics\ I place this at a 2. The visual aethetics are great but the controls are wonky.\ \ Fun\ I don't think you should skip this one so it gets a 2. You should fire it up and jump around for 5 minutes. I had a good time while I could play it. It is a shame it crashed because even without combat I was having a good time.\ \ Innovative\ I'm going to have to give this a 1. It is 3D yes but its not innovative. Maybe if the AI was in and able to fight back I might have saw something but there wasn't.\ \ Scope\ It is getting a 1. Lots of stuff to see, but it was an @ on the screen. A 3D @ but an @ none the less. The planned scope was amazing, but I have to judge it on whats there.\ \ Roguelike\ This falls into a 2. Its real time, 3D, and doesn't actually have combat capable AI yet. Its a Roguelikelike and thats that.\ \ This has been a relatively decent toy, it's not quite at the level of a game yet, but Legend of Tower isn't something you should miss out on just because of that.
It's a first person basher? In Unity. It does not appear to be much of a roguelike, although maybe the levels are random? It is hard to get a sense of progress or what to do other than walk around and mash into monsters until they die. There does not appear to be any way to get hurt? The level layouts were really cool. Perhaps a bit more explanation would be good.
Way too unfinished to be worthy of review - there is absolutely nothing to it. There could be a nice game made out of this - the graphics and the different themed areas were fairly evocative and I found myself wanting to explore the world... but as-is there's nothing to actually 'play'.
Shrapnels
Completeness
1 - Very basic prototype.
1 - Although the core mechanic of real-time timing and turn-based movement has some merit to it, the mechanic should have been used in more interesting ways in order to feel complete.
Aesthetics
2 - More or less standard ascii view of a dungeon and sprites for moving chainsaws. Looks ok.
2 - The dungeon and character is displayed in normal ascii graphics, while the shrapnels are animated sprites. This works really well in the sense that it defines clearly what is part of the turn-based mechanics and what is part of the real-time mechanic, but the aesthetics lack variation.
Fun
1 - It's way too simple to be fun.
1 - The timing mechanic hinted at that this could work if only the mechanic had been fleshed out a bit more. What’s here is not enough to make for a fun game.
Innovation
2 - Experiment that failed is still an innovation. A very basic one.
2 - The idea of mixing turn based gameplay, while having a twitch element to change the pacing and force real-time timing mechanics is interesting. If the game had been fleshed out more to really show the potential of the mechanic the game would get full score in this section.
Scope
1 - Very simple prototype.
1 - There is multiple procedurally generated dungeon floors, there is turn-based mechanics, there are shrapnels flying all over the screen to throw you off, but not enough in here to award points in scope.
Roguelikeness
1 - Random dungeon do not make the game into a roguelike.
2 - There’s not enough game in here to really judge it on roguelikeness, but I got to score it up from one due to the procedural level generation, field of fiew and movement mechanics.
Prototype of a mix of turn based/tile based movement and dodging of objects moving in real time.
Shrapnels is a game about traversing a dungeon in turn-based style, while ducking shrapnels that moves in real-time. This creates a rather interesting game of timing and keyboard hammering as you try desperately to run for the stairs, but there’s not much game in here beyond that core mechanic.
Procedural Death Splatter
Completeness
2 - The log scrolling with things like \"received bad item control message\" and the terrible grammar and spelling in various descriptions speaks of an absolute lack of polish. However, I didn't encounter any game-affecting bugs.
Aesthetics
1 - Pretty simplistic one-colour tile based graphics are far from what you could call pretty. It took a while to realise it's possible to click on tiles in order to find out about their content, and a non-obvious [click to retrieve] button in one tab of the side menu makes inventory management very unintuitive. And while I appreciate that minimal graphics are a traditional roguelike tenet, there's not really any excuse for a game being plain ugly. Five minutes with a spell checker could maybe have raised this to a 2.
Fun
1 - Going around whacking things is fine, but in this case it seems you can only push enemies out of the light range. The lamp dynamic is an interesting one, but it's a bit odd to have the edge of the light act as solid walls. The crafting system seems like a nice idea but quickly becomes frustrating - there's no intuitive understanding of what sort of progression you can have. Two rocks combined make a stone, but try to combine another rock and both items simply disappear. This makes the trial and error process of crafting infuriating. Even selecting \"use\" on an item will simply make it vanish in most cases. Even once I'd figured out how to make crystals to extend the light range, the fact that enemies keep piling up and the reduced light range makes your hard-crafted creations vanish made the experience seem hopelessly undirected. There are stats for reach, intel and sensors but it's not at all apparent how they might be improved or how they affect gameplay. Ultimately everything just keeps vanishing. I really wanted to like this game, but in the end I am unable to drag myself back for another round.
Innovation
2 - The crafting system is fairly novel, and the shrinking light dynamic is definitely original. However, gameplay still boils down to repeatedly button-mashing to bump enemies out of the field of light and running back to hit the lamp over and over again, hoping that more items will pop up that you can craft with.
Scope
1 - The crafting system promises to offer a lot of depth of gameplay, but unfortunately doesn't seem to deliver - most combinations and actions result in the items involved simply vanishing with no explanation. Repeat trial and error shows that there are really only a small handful of possible crafting recipes - a peek in the source confirms this, with only 8 actual combinations possible, and nearly twice as many again commented out and never implemented. The crafting system could have made this great, but ultimately was a letdown. Considering the lack of polish and features in other aspects of the game, it's really very hard to imagine what the author spent his seven days doing - this game has the scope of a weekend game at most, and I could easily see it being made in a day.
Roguelikeness
1 - Aside from the fact you move on a tile-based grid, there is nothing roguelike about this game. There is no kind of maze or procedural landscape, no concept of levels, no character evolution or hit points, and no hack-n-slash combat as such.
First impressions: two grammar mistakes in the description is never a good start. The game is browser based but for some reason requires a download in zip format - I guess the author couldn't find hosting space, but that seems rather strange in the year 2014. However, the mention of crafting had me intrigued. The game involves pushing enemies about and manipulating items, while staying within the reach of a lamp - actions you take reduce the reach of that lamp, and you periodically have to return to it to pump it back up with \"jiggawhattz\" (sic). There is a crafting system that involves either combining or refining items you pick up.
The Shroom Z
Completeness
2 - There is some random terrain. It lags a lot when jumping, but somehow works.
Aesthetics
1 - Main character walking animation looks like he overshitted his pants. Lack of proper lightning makes it hard to notice edges of platforms.
Fun
1 - Not fun at all.
Innovation
1 - Nothing new.
Scope
2 - It looks like some effort was put into this.
Roguelikeness
1 - Nope.
The game is awful. It's 3rd person realtime hack and slash with horrible animations and poor performance.
The Worst Archaeologist in the World
Completeness
2 - The game seems to have been completed as intended (i.e. just designed), so I guess the most obviously missing feature is the software which runs the game on my computer. However, I think the rule book could have been more complete. There are numerous corner cases which I was unsure about after a few plays, and I wish the manual could have covered them more completely, with more diagrams illustrating the rules, etc.
Aesthetics
1 - The game rules are full of typos, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes. The tiles of the board game are nothing special.
Fun
2 - Despite my confusion over why this game was entered into the roguelike challenge (its not a roguelike by any means), the board game was fun to play.
Innovation
1 - As stated by the author, the game is based on another board game called Hive. The new game rules for Yokai don't really bring anything new to the table compared to Hive either.
Scope
1 - I was significantly underwhelmed with the amount of material provided in the final version.
Roguelikeness
1 - Although billed as \"an abstract Roguelike board game\
I cannot really think of anything about Yokai which reminds me of the roguelike genre."
Transplant
Completeness
2 - The game runs fine and doesn't crash. But it looks rather barebone.
Aesthetics
1 - These dissected bodies look disgusting. And what's even worse, they don't look like monsters.
Fun
1 - There is not enough game.
Innovation
1 - Nothing new.
Scope
1 - @ walking on the screen. In 3d.
Roguelikeness
2 - Well. It's turn based. There are stats. It's rather incomplete, but direction it could move at points to a roguelikish direction.
Walk around foggy plain (in first person view), attack and try to kill otherwise non aggressive monsters, pick organs they drop. It could be somewhat interesting, if there was any variety of organs. But they are trivial. Heart heals, arms stand for attack, torso for damage absorption and something else for speed. There is boss monster which is weakened by killing minion monsters around. That's all.
Yokai
Completeness
2 - The game seems to have been completed as intended (i.e. just designed), so I guess the most obviously missing feature is the software which runs the game on my computer. However, I think the rule book could have been more complete. There are numerous corner cases which I was unsure about after a few plays, and I wish the manual could have covered them more completely, with more diagrams illustrating the rules, etc.
Aesthetics
1 - The game rules are full of typos, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes. The tiles of the board game are nothing special.
Fun
2 - Despite my confusion over why this game was entered into the roguelike challenge (its not a roguelike by any means), the board game was fun to play.
Innovation
1 - As stated by the author, the game is based on another board game called Hive. The new game rules for Yokai don't really bring anything new to the table compared to Hive either.
Scope
1 - I was significantly underwhelmed with the amount of material provided in the final version.
Roguelikeness
1 - Although billed as \"an abstract Roguelike board game\
I cannot really think of anything about Yokai which reminds me of the roguelike genre. Frankly
Airship Dragoon Rogue
Completeness
2 - Is this game a finished piece of software? Just how polished is it, including balance and expected features?\ I think I will give this a 2. This was a tough one to rate. It looks like it is missing a lot but it doesn't have many bugs and didn't crash for me.
1 - Missing lots of features. Only has a single color mesh floor, 1 weapon, and three enemies.
Aesthetics
2 - Is the game aesthetically pleasing? Are the controls easy and intuitive? As a roguelike functionality is more important than outright charm - a well laid out ASCII game can get a 3 and a messy graphical game with bad controls can get a 1.\ It gets a 2. The controls made sense and while the textures for the rooms and what not where bland the enemies stood out against it and it wasn't obnoxious.
1 - There's just not enough content to even have a sense of aesthetics.
Fun
1 - Is it enjoyable or compelling to play?\ It has promise but it still rates a 1 in my book. I had fun while I was fighting enemies but that stopped happening and I was just wandering around. The combat also wasn't responsive enough and you moved around slowly compared to how big the rooms where.
1 - There's not enough going on to have fun.
Innovation
1 - Does the game bring new ingredients to the table? Never before seen mechanics or weird twists on traditional elements?\ A 1 is what I am giving it. Do note that it gets a one not as a roguelike but as a brawler because it doens't feel like a roguelike and its very generic for what it did feel like and was advertised as being.
1 - Nothing innovative about it.
Scope
2 - How ambitious was this project? Rich and deep content, a large featureset or even an impressive kitchen sink roster can count here. Measure what was done, not what was planned!\ It can have a 2 here. It what I would expect from a 7 day 3d game.
1 - Not much in the game...
Roguelikeness
1 - 7DRLs often push the bounds of the genre. As such, it is unsurprising if they push right out! Please do not consult the Berlin Interpretation - this should be about how you think the game feels rather than meeting an arbitrary checklist.\ 1. It isn't a roguelike. It does have random maps and perma death but it doesn't make it a roguelike. It feels like a brawler and it is described as one. I am amazed it was made in 7 days but its not a roguelike. Do note though this isn't condemning it, the fact that it wasn't fun is what does that.
1 - It's an action game with a meaninglessly randomized map.
I did a video where I play and review of it Here:\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0ndqJq4jG4\ If you don't want to watch the whole thing then the link below will bring you directly to the part where I go and actually review it:\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0ndqJq4jG4&t=19m24s\ And if you really don't want to watch the video below is a good approximation of what I say
Overall this game doesn't offer much of interest to the average roguelike player. Looking at the creator's blog there was going to be quite a bit of interesting content, but most of it didn't end up in the game.
Escape from the Memory Canyons
Completeness
1 - No instructions. It works only if the entire map is visible. But it is playable.\ \ Extremely difficult to set up and get running.
Aesthetics
2 - Actually I like the use of coloured characters to indicate the enemies, the goal and your own health, The play field is very simple and clean. The controls are not intuitive.
Fun
1 - This is really just walking through a maze where the entire maze is visible.
Innovation
1 - Really basic walk around a map, avoid everything, find the exit.
Scope
1 - Literally @ on a map.
Roguelikeness
1 - Your character does not evolve. Very limited interaction.
h = left\ l = right\ k = up\ j = down\ u = up-right\ n = down-right\ y = up-left\ b = down-left\ esc = exit\ \ So how does it play?\ \ It generates a screen with hash-characters and spaces. Here and there you have red g-characters \"grid bugs\" and red d-characters \"data-pushers\". These enemies are stationary if you don't go near them. The data you are looking for is a green !-mark.\ \ When you find the \"data\" you are greeted with \"Conratulations; you found the data! Press ESC to quit. END OF LINE.\"\ \ This are also the only instructions found for the game. Well, it is nice to get some kind of instructions. That they come at the end of the game is a bit funny.\ \ So how is this played? You use a bit \"tactics\" to move towards the \"data\" mark '!'. Sometimes the \"grid bugs\" 'g' or \"data-pushers\" 'd' start moving with you. They have around zero intelligence so it is fairly easy to get them stuck somewhere.\ \ When you come to the edge of the screen many weird thing can happen. You may suddenly just teleport to the other end of the gamefileld. It feels like a bug. You can also get stuck at the edge.\
Prescience
Completeness
2 - The game runs, but feels seriously unpolished.
1 - Maybe some tutorial would be useful. I have no idea what I should do to proceed. Click some object on the screen? Press some key? Guess a link and put it in the address bar to continue the game?
Aesthetics
1 - The game is 3d puzzle in a completely white environment which is really confusing. Uninterruptible text between levels and absence of restart functionality is a major drawback in a game like this.
1 - Useless 3D.
Fun
1 - I don't feel like it is anywhere amusing.
1 - Waste of time, as for now.
Innovation
1 - I don't really understand the main idea of the game. So I can't really say in which field it tries to be innovative. There are 'mysterious' 3d puzzles out there, more clever and more mysterious.
1 - No innovation in what I have seen.
Scope
2 - I haven't reached the end of the game, so I can't really say how much is there. But judging from how things were so far, it's not out of generic 7drl scope.
1 - From what I have seen I can give Scope 1. Maybe there is something more, but I do not see it.
Roguelikeness
1 - Nope.
1 - As the author admits, \"While it may not have many (any) roguelike elements, it was created in the spirit of the competition, with the theme being the endless possibility space that occurs naturally due to the replayability of roguelikes.\","The game loads, and displays three men around a black hole on a white background. I can target the black hole and click, causing the background to go black, and shows the text \"we are you\" in many places around the three men (which are now hard to see, because they are black lines on a black background). And that is it. Whatever I have tried, nothing happens. Maybe there is something more, but I am unable to reach it.\
This is some kind of a puzzlish 3d experience.
Runic Ruins
Completeness
2 - It’s hard to judge ‘completeness’ here because I think the game is everything that it was intended to be, but it just doesn’t feel right to rate it as ‘polished’ or ‘feature complete’. It’s so minimal that it’s barely a game; more a programming class exercise. Still, I don't think it's missing anything that was intended to be in there. My gut says give it a 1 but out of fairness to the developer I have to give it a 2.
Aesthetics
1 - It’s not a mess, it’s easy enough to tell what’s what and the control is straightforward, but it’s so ugly. Just really not pleasant to behold at all. With so little gameplay, I'm not sure I can justify treating 'intuitive controls' as a major plus.
Fun
1 - I’m sorry but this is the game’s biggest failing. There’s almost no gameplay. Tedious and a chore. Fine as an exercise in learning to design games, and I don't want to malign or criticise the developer, but if we're rating 'fun' then this one scores low.
Innovation
1 - No.
Scope
1 - I nearly said ‘hardly ambitious’ but that’s not fair. ‘Ambitious’ depends on the person. For me, this game would be incredibly ambitious because I don’t know any programming. In comparison to other 7DRLs though, it’s very very basic.
Roguelikeness
1 - Not really. Rune that’s in each room seems to be randomly assigned but otherwise there’s nothing roguelike-ish here apart from othogonal control.
I’m going to try really hard not to be too harsh to Runic Ruins. I don’t know what the developer’s level of programming experience is, and Runic Ruins feels like someone making one of their first attempts at a game. If so, be proud. I didn’t run into any bugs or oddities, everything functioned as it was supposed to, and it never crashed. Also, there’s some form of art, something that I know isn’t necessarily easy to do. \ \ With that disclaimer, I have to review Runic Ruins as a game. It’s incredibly basic. Use WASD to move from room to room in a five-by-five grid, looking for the rune that is displayed in the corner of the screen. When you find that rune and step on it, you’ll have to look for another one. At first I assumed this continued until you’ve found all of them but I no longer think that’s the case. You see, there’s a trick to the game. On my first sitting I played for as long as I could bear to (about 45 minutes) and never managed to find more than four of the 24 runes. The reason is the time limit. You’re given what initially seems quite a generous time limit to find all the runes, and each one you find rewards you with more time, but there’s no indication as to where the next one is, and with 25 rooms (including the rune-free starting room) I found it hard to remember which ones I’d seen where, so I always ended up just doing circuits or wandering at random, which soon uses up all your time. \ \ The game mentions following the ‘glowing totem’ if you’re lost but I didn’t realise what that meant until I asked the developer. A glowing block in the starting room gives you a general direction for the rune you’re currently seeking, which means there are never more than four rooms that a given rune can be in (e.g. if the totem glows to the northwest, then your rune is in one of the four rooms in that corner). This basically eliminates the time issue as long as you’re nimble on the WASD keys. The rune locations re-randomise occasionally but this doesn’t have any practical effect if you’re relying on the glowing totem to guide you. So the game becomes ‘run through the indicated clump of rooms, run back to the middle, head out again’. After doing this for a little while I realised I was sometimes visiting the same runes more than once in rapid succession. The objective, it seems, isn’t to collect all the runes but just to keep going for as long as possible without running out of time. With no score count to indicate how many runes you’ve successfully touched, there’s no way to compete with your own record (unless you mentally keep count) and the experience is so dull and repetitive that there’s no reason you’d want to. The only ‘challenge’ comes in the form of blocks scattered around every room, which you have to walk around. Just busywork. That’s all there is to this game, and as a result I don’t think it can really be considered a game. \ \ It’s not without good points. No bugs, responsive controls, decent enough art on the rune design (though the rest of the art is quite unpleasant to look at), no crashes or freezes. It runs well, it’s just not fun or even really a game. If, as I suspect, it’s an early effort in learning how to make games, particularly within such a tight time limit, I applaud the effort. This is more game than I can make. In the grander scheme of 7DRL entries though, and taken on its own merits as a game, I can’t possibly recommend playing it.
The Boss Might Be a Dragon
Completeness
1 - Empty labyrinth in first person 3d view without any kind of game there.
Aesthetics
2 - There are some nice textures with bump mapping. And dynamic lightning of torches.
Fun
1 - As fun as rendering technodemo can be.
Innovation
1 - While oculus rift is obviously innovation, technodemo of it's SDK is not.
Scope
1 - @ walking on the screen. In 3d.
Roguelikeness
1 - Not a roguelike at all.
Technodemo of oculus rift sdk.
APEX - Alien Pest Exterminator
Completeness
1 - There's a basic game here, but it's really lacking significant features, crashes sometimes, and has pathfinding and enemy placement bugs.
1 - It's very buggy right now: Players can currently fall of the map, spawn in impossible to leave areas, and the gun may or may not stop firing after being held down deliberately. There's minimal feedback to tell if some of the issues are bugs or gameplay elements.
1 - Technodemo that is not even complete technodemo.
Aesthetics
2 - The 3D graphics are nice, but the controls are clunky. It's not always obvious which corridors one can fit through.
1 - It's a bit premature to talk about aesthetics as it's very early along in development. The main menu, for example, doesn't suggest a way to start the game (e.g., pressing a button to start) and instead looks like a loading banner. In game, the square ground is often visible and textures seem painted on the terrain with little reason. The 3D models look nice.
2 - There is some pretty 3d, but I would expect at least corpses of slain monsters. Some basic sounds wouldn't hurt too, since we are talking about arcade shooter. Ammo indicator is to be expected too.
Fun
1 - Gameplay is extremely shallow, with no decisions or choices at any moment.
1 - While I enjoyed the laser sight bobbing, there's not much to do at the moment.
1 - Running from swarm of aliens while shooting them could be fun. But this one is way too simple and bugged to be fun.
Innovation
1 - Standard pew pew.
1 - Shoot everything that moves.
1 - No innovations found.
Scope
1 - I would expect better than this in terms of gameplay.
1 - Tech demo, still in development.
1 - Basically it's @ moving on the screen.
Roguelikeness
1 - This plays nothing like a roguelike. Though it's a top-down shooter similar to Binding of Isaac (which is at least semi-roguelike) it lacks that game's depth of mechanics, interesting enemies and progression choices. As it is it's just a simplistic shooter with samey random levels.
1 - Overhead 2D shooter. Seems to be some incomplete procedural map generation.
1 - It is possible to make arcade roguelike. But this game is not the case. It's way too simple.
This is a pretty game involving shooting aliens. Your gun has a cooldown after bursts, which means you can't just mow them down, but circle-strafing makes it fairly easy to deal with the hordes. There's a real lack of content in the game, with only one way to attack and little variety in enemies - certainly no interesting enemies that make you think about... anything. It needs some tactical choices and other attack options to make it feel like more of a game.
APEX - Alien Pest Exterminator is a tech prototype of a 2D top-down shooter. It's a bit unplayable in its current state but has some nice 3D models.
Technodemo of a top down arcade shooter relatively similar to crimsonland may be.
Blitz it up!
Completeness
1 - There is barely any game. And even that little has bug! Sometimes the tank is sliding after moving to the target tile.
Aesthetics
1 - Untextured 3d with strange choice of colors. Why mountains and turret are white? Controls are also faulty. You can't click on barrel. You must click on tile under the barrel. The same with crate. Why not allow to click the turret to fire at it?
Fun
1 - No game, no fun.
Innovation
1 - None.
Scope
1 - @ walking on the screen. But @ is a tank.
Roguelikeness
1 - No, it's not.
This is technodemo, not a game.
Goblin Hunt
Completeness
1 -
Aesthetics
1 -
Fun
1 -
Innovation
1 -
Scope
1 -
Roguelikeness
1 -
The game is an @ on a black screen with a bunch of goblins denoted 'g' where the goblins rush for the top left of the screen. They don't attack the player unless you are in their way and once they all pile up along the edge of the screen they stop moving. Once you kill all the goblins you win, or if you lose your 10hp you lose.
Rift-RL
Completeness
1 - It's missing a significant number of features and has a few bugs: There's no feedback during combat, killing all the spawning pools or losing all of your party leaves the game in a bugged state, and the party is minimally distinct from each other.
Aesthetics
1 - The UI and map artwork all look like placeholder work. However, there's some nice details to the monsters
Fun
1 - It's still very much in the prototype/tech demo stage and lacking gameplay.
Innovation
1 - Straight up hack and slash.
Scope
1 - Currently just above @ on a map.
Roguelikeness
1 - It's too early to really say. The maps are procedural and there's bump combat, but it's too early along to see how the elements will interact.
Control a group of four adventurers killing monsters and spawning pools. A bare-bones Unity prototype.